(book review)

What are we on this planet for, if not to make our dreams come true? What can be more inspiring than the realization of the dreams of other people or even entire countries? Markiyan Prokhasko’s book ‘Dream of Antarctica’ is about this very thing – about the realization of a personal dream of a trip to Antarctica and about Ukraine gaining a well-deserved station on this continent – Akademik Vernadsky Station. Since childhood, the author has dreamed of getting to a place where there is still so much unexplored and unknown, where the images are more similar to those on other planets than to what we are used to seeing around us.

Unfortunately, for some dreams to come true, it takes decades and a difficult path that the author took to get to the dreamed Antarctica and write such an interesting and thorough book about Ukrainian Antarctica. The book is very voluminous, and it is not only about its size, but also about its content. The author describes many aspects related to Antarctica. But I wouldn’t be in a hurry to accuse the author for graphomania. After all, Antarctica is really multifaceted and unknown to the majority of Ukrainian readers, so we can only thank the author for presenting its diversity. And especially for his skillful descriptions of his feelings and experiences through the imposition of well-known images and experiences, which allow the reader to “touch” Antarctica with Prokhasko’s hands. The author’s photo also deserves special attention. However, I would like to see more photo materials in this book.

‘Dream of Antarctica’ is extremely relevant even now at a time when Ukraine has to fight not only for its dream, but for its right to be a sovereign and independent state. After all, in the book, a lot of attention is paid to Russia, which did a lot to prevent Ukraine, an independent state, from entering the Antarctic pie. It is very unpleasant that Markiyan Prokhasko’s many years of painstaking work was not properly appreciated, because the book was published a few days before the start of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine. And it should be noted that this is one of the exceptional for the Ukrainian literary market untranslatable works written on a grand scale, which somewhat combines reportage and popular science genres. Well done, Markian! Keep it up!

Therefore, if you suddenly want to learn everything about Antarctica through the prism of personal experience and collected facts, then I definitely advise you to read this book! My rating is 9/10.