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A Novel
by Maria Reva
Book Reviewed by:Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and the impact of war.
Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab, trying and failing to breed rare snails while her relatives urge her to give up and start a family. What they don't know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they'll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity.
Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother—a flamboyant protestor who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.
So begins a journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.
But their plans come to a screeching halt as Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious metafictional spiral, Endling brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva's own experiences tracking her family's delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from overseas: can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?
Endling is a tour de force from an author on the cutting edge of fiction, weaving a story of love, loss, humor, and devastation that only she can tell.
1
Anastasia, the girl called herself. Achingly young-too young, thought Yeva, to be taking part in the romance tours. Yeva would be getting talked at by some bachelor, and from across the banquet room or yacht deck she'd notice the girl watching her intently, round blank face trained on her like a telescope dish. That face, normally flat and deadened, as if the girl had long ago checked out, twitched, tried to wink, send a signal to Yeva, now that the girl's handler had loosened her clutches. Help. Maybe the girl was being trafficked, who knew. Once, the girl followed her to the parking lot and watched as Yeva got into her trailer. She was probably longing to get in, too, be whisked away somewhere safe before her "interpreter" caught up with her, quick and officious, and yanked her away by the elbow.
Rumor had it the girl was into God. Of course she was, sad thing. The religious ones made the perfect victims, used to bowing under threat from above. In the past Yeva would have risen to ...
Maria Reva's debut novel Endling follows a group of Ukrainian women involved in "romance tours"—a cultural phenomenon akin to the mail-order bride system in which men from around the world come to meet Ukrainian women with the goal of marriage. The part of the book that was most thrilling for me was how the author handled a huge twist. A Ukrainian native raised mostly in Canada, Reva retains close ties to her Ukrainian family and culture. While she was writing Endling, her homeland was invaded by Russia. A lot of novels contain autobiographical elements, including works of metafiction where the author enters the story as a character. In Endling, Maria Reva enters because she can't possibly leave herself behind...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Erin Lyndal Martin).
Anelise Chen, author of Clam Down: A Metamorphosis
Maria Reva has gifted us a lifeline. Wild, exhilarating, heartbreaking—Endling is a tale of perseverance and survival for dark times. Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake
In Maria Reva's all-around brilliant novel Endling, the fate of some snails serves as a harbinger for the fate of Ukraine. The book is funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure, all the while reminding us what the world stands to lose, and what it has already lost. This is essential reading. Percival Everett, author of National Book Award winner James
Maria Reva has made a fantastic novel. It's about so much and yet is laser focused. A scientist who funds her research with sex work, a wild and, at the same time, sensible and normal move. This novel turns corners and tables. I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.
In Endling, Maria Reva centers Ukrainian identity, whether her focus is on romance tours or the snail conservation efforts of one of the central "brides" named Yeva. Through Yeva's work, we learn about the topography and life forms that shape Ukraine. One detail that stuck with me was the discussion of chernozem, the rich black soil that nourishes all-important grain crops. I thought this was a beautiful metaphor for the way the land shapes people.
Estimates vary, but it is believed that up to 68% of Ukrainian soil is chernozem. Soil scientist Vasily V. Dokuchaev first identified and named chernozem ("black earth" in Russian) in 1883. It is said to be some of the most fertile soil in the world, and Ukraine contains in its borders a ...
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