Fiction About Lives in Ukraine

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While the disturbing news continues to come from Ukraine, new fiction works highlight how lives there have been transformed by conflict. In this week’s podcast, critic Jennifer Wilson talks about two books, including Yevgenia Belorusets’ short story collection “Lucky Breaks,” translated by Eugene Ostashevsky.

“Belorusets has been compared to Gogol in these stories,” Wilson says. “There’s a certain kind of supernatural quality to them. I think anyone who looks at these books to examine conflict individually will be disappointed by this, but I think they will be delighted in other ways as well.”

Ben McGrath visits the podcast to talk about his new book, “Riverman: An American Odyssey” It tells the story of Dick Conant, a troubled and charismatic man who disappears while on a canoe trip from New York to Florida. Conant was in his 60s when McGrath met him and had spent many years exploring various waterways.

“What he learned was that there was nothing to learn about himself, nothing to improve things, and the secret to finding happiness was to turn the lens outward,” McGrath says. Instead of retreating to Walden Pond and looking at her reflection in Thoreau’s model, she decided to go out into the world and see new places and meet new people; And by doing that, keep himself busy enough that he doesn’t have to worry too much about who he is and what his problems are.”

Also in this week’s episode, Elizabeth Harris has news from the world of literature; Lauren Christensen and MJ Franklin talk about what they read. Hosted by John Williams.

Here are the books discussed in this week’s “What We’ve Read” section:

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode and the Book Review podcast in general. you can send them books@nytimes.com.