Endling

From acclaimed author Maria Reva comes Endling, a darkly funny and deeply moving novel set in war-torn Ukraine—a fierce and original exploration of feminism, survival, and the absurdity of modern conflict.

Ukraine, 2022: Yeva, a solitary scientist and rogue researcher, lives out of her mobile lab, obsessively trying to breed an endangered snail species. Her family wants her to settle down and start a “normal” life, unaware that Yeva funds her work by dating wealthy Western men—clients of Ukraine’s booming romance tour industry seeking submissive, “traditional” brides.

Meanwhile, sisters Nastia and Solomiya navigate the same industry, posing as a hopeful bride and translator while secretly searching for their activist mother, who disappeared after openly opposing the exploitative matchmaking business.

When the three women cross paths, they set out on a wild road trip across Ukraine—with a stolen van full of foreign bachelors, a dying snail species, and a mission that unravels into chaos just as Russia invades. What begins as satire becomes a surreal and gripping journey through a country on the brink, where fiction and reality blur, and survival becomes its own kind of storytelling.

Endling is a bold, metafictional tour de force—at once absurd, raw, and fiercely political. With razor-sharp prose and dark humor, Maria Reva examines the fragile illusions we cling to in the face of war, the commodification of women, and the resilience required to reclaim agency amid systemic collapse.

Perfect for readers of literary fiction who appreciate books about war, resistance, feminist themes, and Eastern European perspectives, Endling is a genre-defying novel that captures the surreal horror—and bizarre beauty—of survival in an occupied homeland.