Endling by Maria Reva

In “Endling”, a quirky Ukrainian scientist lives in a battered RV, racing to save the last snail of its species. She crosses paths with two sisters running a mail‑order bride revenge scheme – until their plan collides with the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In Reva’s wrenching novel, absurdity, grief and survival converge under a fight for existence.

Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a maverick scientist who scours the country's forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails while her relatives urge her to settle down and start a family of her own.

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. 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, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. So begins a journey of a lifetime across a country on the brink of war: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.

Hardback