The Berlin-based publishing house Transit has released the adventure novel Carbide by Andrii Liubka. The writer announced this on Facebook.
According to the blurb, Carbide tells the story of a group of enthusiasts who decide to build a Fountain of Unity with Europe in the fictional town of Vedmediv in the summer of 2015. The author explains why they need the fountain, why prison is crying out for them, and how much it costs to buy a human kidney in Ukraine. The book features plum brandy, fishermen, a gravedigger, seventeen chapters, a seductive and lustful woman, several killers, a corrupt mayor, a brilliant idea, the Tysa River and hopelessness. What it does not contain, however, are Schengen visas, answers to every question, cookery recipes, or tips on how to get rich.
The German translation was produced by Mariia Vaizenbok and Johannes Kvek. In Germany, the publication was supported by the Ukrainian Book Institute as part of the Translate Ukraine programme. A copy costs €26.
Carbide has previously been translated into English, Greek, Slovene, Lithuanian, Croatian, Polish, Macedonian, Slovak and Serbian. A Spanish and Hungarian edition is also planned for 2027.
In Ukraine, the work was published by Meridian Czernowitz in 2015. That year, the novel made the shortlist for the BBC Book of the Year award. In 2017, Carbide was also nominated for the Angelus Literary Award.
About Andrii Liubka:
- Ukrainian writer, poet, translator and serviceman;
- among the author’s works are the prose collections Sleeping with Women, Saudade, Something Is Wrong with Me, War from the Rear, the novels A Small Ukrainian Novel, An Evening in Istanbul, and others;
- winner of the Yurii Shevelov Prize and the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Prize;
- in February 2026, he received the Polish-Lithuanian Jerzy Giedroyc Prize.
About Transit Buchverlag:
- a Berlin publishing house founded in 1981;
- has received the Kurt Wolff Prize (2011), the Berlin Publishing Prize (2024), and the German Publishing Prize (2019, 2025).