DAYBREAK

An American veteran seeks a purpose in war-torn Ukraine.

Two former American soldiers arrive in Ukraine not long after the Russian invasion. They are Luke Paxton, the protagonist, and Han Lee—though Paxton is known as “Pax,” which feels meaningful in a book about the effects of war. Gallagher writes, “…Lee hadn’t been able to shake the sense of lost purpose in the homeland so now he was here, to again carry the gun.” Pax is also looking for a sense of purpose—he tells a fellow veteran, “I came to help….But I don’t know how”—but he’s also looking for an old flame named Svitlana Dovbush. Eventually, Pax and Lee part ways, and Pax finds himself adrift in Lviv. He does reconnect with Svitlana, who in the intervening years has gotten married and had a son; Pax learns that her marriage is fraying, and that her husband is away on the front lines of combat. Gallagher mostly sticks to Pax’s perspective, but notably, it’s through Svitlana that we learn how they parted ways years before. Several of the novel’s Ukrainian characters take pains to point out how little the well-intentioned Americans know about the conflict. Bogdan, a recruiter, tells them, “I’ve been surprised how many arrivals are willing to fight and kill for my country…yet have no idea the war has been going for eight years.” And there’s tension surrounding Pax’s place in the narrative; late in the book, Svitlana tells him, “Don’t you dare do that thing that makes everything in the world about you.” It’s an absorbing character study of a man purging the ghosts of one war by attempting to fight in another.

An understated look at the physical and psychological effects of war.