Talking Location With author Judith Heneghan – Kiev

26th April 2019

#TalkingLocationWith…  author Judith Heneghan transports her readers to Kiev, the setting for her debut novel Snegurochka

The Bessarabsky market in central Kiev is a cavernous building with iron rafters vaulting the roof like a cathedral. A chilly draught sweeps around the counters piled high with caviar, chicken carcasses and cured pig fat, dried fruit from Kazakhstan, walnuts from the Caucasus and jars of home-grown pickled vegetables stacked in precipitous towers. I point tentatively at macadamia nuts, my Russian almost entirely forgotten. The stallholder laughs and gives me a little metal key for prising open the shells. Tourists are welcome here now, it seems. People are happy for me to take their photograph. Twenty-five years ago, when I was last shopping for dinner at the Bessarabsky market, I wouldn’t have dared.

Back in 1993 I’d lived here with my then-partner, a journalist, and our baby son. It wasn’t an easy time, but the place left an indelible mark. Now, finally, we’ve returned with our two younger children, in part to celebrate the completion of my novel set in Kiev.  I assumed I’d find it changed, and our first encounter with an airy, modernised Boryspil airport seems to confirm this. We glide through passport control and hop in a taxi, marvelling at the wonders of Uber.

It is only as the taxi approaches the city’s outskirts that the intervening twenty-six years begin to melt away.  The high-rise blocks of Darnystia may have sprawled a little further and no one queues for bread in shop doorways anymore but the snow and the trees that line the right bank of the Dnieper are exactly as I remember. There too is the Motherland Monument, raising her sword above the river, and the gold domes of the churches, and the elegant nineteenth-century buildings with their faded pastel facades.

As we are travelling on a budget I’ve booked a modest apartment in a central location next to one of Kiev’s many parks. The entrance is difficult to find and the lift isn’t working, but our host is waiting at the steel door of our apartment with smiles and slippers and even a bottle of wine. We only have two days though, and as dusk is already falling we head straight down to the market before strolling along Kreshchatyk towards Independence Square. Stray snowflakes drift into the glow from the busy shops and cafes. We watch street performers, take photos and pause for a few minutes at the dignified row of memorials to those who lost their lives in the 2014 protests.

The following morning we take a cab to Kiev Pechersk Lavra – Kiev’s Monastery of the Caves – where I once spent many afternoons bumping my son’s pushchair down its steep cobbled paths. There weren’t many tourists back in 1993 and the central church had lain in ruins after being blown up in 1941. Now the church is rebuilt, the magnificent bell tower is restored and once again you can venture down into the narrow catacombs where the air is thick with burning candles and the bodies of saints lie enshrined in glass cases. Don’t wear shorts though, and be aware that women are expected to wear a skirt and a headscarf. The whole complex is extraordinary. Allow a full day to explore its treasures.

After a simple lunch of black bread and soup in the monastery’s cafeteria, we make our way to the memorial park honouring soldiers of the Second World War. The park has fine views across the Dnieper, but the museum that hunkers beneath the Motherland Monument is a graphic reminder of the dreadful cost of the war in Ukraine. There is even an exhibition of artefacts from the current conflict in Donbas.  We emerge in a sombre mood as the light fades and rooks caw from the tank turrets. The day has been full of intense impressions and we need a good dinner.

Fortunately, Mama Manana’s, renowned for its Georgian cuisine, is close to our Airbnb and cheerfully provides all of the delicious flavours of the Caucasus – aubergine, walnuts, pomegranate, creamy cheese. We feast on hachapuri, bowls of marinaded shashlik and of course Georgian wine. Going out used to mean ‘kotlet’ and cheap champanskoye. Nowadays Kiev offers an abundance of great restaurants and bars.

We spend our final morning exploring the streets beneath the baroque spires and domes of St Andrew’s Church, taking in Bulgakov’s childhood home and the souvenir stalls on our way down to the old merchants’ quarter of Podil. Then it’s time to head back to the airport. Our taxi driver talks about Ukraine’s economic travails. Kiev faces many problems but there is now a welcome openness alongside the city’s enduring beauty. I can’t wait to visit again.

Thank you so much to Judith for transporting us to Kiev. Do follow her on Twitter and you can of course buy her book through our affiliate link

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