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Author who died after Russian missile attack awarded Orwell prize
The Guardian
|June 26, 2025
A novelist who was killed in the Ukraine war has won the Orwell prize for political writing.
Victoria Amelina, who died in July 2023 from injuries sustained in a Russian strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk, won the prize with her unfinished book Looking at Women Looking at War.
The book - Amelina's only work of nonfiction - documents the resistance efforts of Ukrainian women, including a soldier, a human rights activist and a librarian. "The effect is of an ensemble of female voices, not a solo aria," wrote Charlotte Higgins in a Guardian review. The book is "an important piece of testimony and a precious, powerful work of literature: a steady beam of light born amid darkness and violence".
Amelina "brings to her narrative the acuity of a journalist and the artistry of a born writer, making her a true heir of George Orwell", said the judging chair, Kim Darroch.
This story is from the June 26, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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