Maria Reva

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025
WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE
WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, IRISH TIMES, BBC, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

An unforgettable debut novel about the journey of three women and one extremely endangered snail through contemporary Ukraine

'A fierce and funny road-trip novel' GUARDIAN, the 50 hottest books to read right now
'Inventive and playful' SUNDAY TIMES
'A stunning debut' OBSERVER
'I was gripped . . . Brilliant' DAILY MAIL
'A thrilling ride' FINANCIAL TIMES
'A bold, brilliant, original, funny and devastating novel' KATE MCLOUGHLIN, TLS
'Brilliant and heart-stopping' LOS ANGELES TIMES
'Startling and ambitious' NEW YORK TIMES
'Animated by dark humor and cool fury' NEW YORKER
'Dexterous and formally inventive' MARCEL THEROUX, GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY

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.