Books at the Institute: Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout

Books at the Institute is pleased to present an evening with Jen Stout, reporter, writer, radio producer, and award-winning author of

Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War

Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Ukrainian Institute of America
2 East 79th Street (at Fifth Avenue)
New York, NY 10075

Ms. Stout will be joined in conversation with best-selling author Adam Higginbotham.

 Book signing and light reception to follow

$20 / $10 UIA members

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
Winner of the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award.
Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize.

When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, millions of lives changed in an instant.

Millions of people were suddenly on the move. In this great flow of people was a reporter from the north of Scotland. Jen Stout left Moscow abruptly, ending up on a border post in southeast Romania, from where she began to cover the human cost of Russian aggression. Her first-hand, vivid reporting brought the war home to readers in Scotland as she reported from front lines and cities across Ukraine. Stories from the night trains, birthday parties, military hospitals and bunkers: stories from the ground, from a writer with a deep sense of empathy, always seeking to understand the bigger picture, the big questions of identity, history, hopes and fears in this war in Europe.

Night Train to Odesa begins in Russia and continues to focus on people, relationships and individuals in Ukraine. It is the account of a young female reporter with no institutional backup or security. Both in language and themes, it is accessible and highly readable.

Praise for Night Train to Odesa:

“Night Train to Odesa not only paints a nuanced picture of Ukrainian society at a pivotal moment in the country’s history, but also offers a realistic portrayal of the demands of on the ground wartime reporting — Kyiv Independent

“A luminous love letter to an embattled nation, as it resists the Kremlin’s imperial takeover. [President] Volodymyr Zelensky does not appear. Its heroes are regular Ukrainians. Stout writes about them with extraordinary and heartfelt empathy, as they do their best to live amid bombs and to survive.”—The Observer

“The brutality of the war in Ukraine is told with great empathy, compassion and skill by Jen Stout in Night Train to Odesa. She shows not only great courage in her reporting on the ground, but the immense human cost of war.”— JANINE DI GIOVANNI

Night Train to Odesa was reviewed, among others, in Bella Caledonia, The Bearr Trust, The Guardian, Kyiv Independent, The Okrney News, and The Scotsman.

Jen Stout is a journalist, writer, and radio producer from Scotland, frequently working in Ukraine. Originally from Shetland, she has lived in Germany and Russia. Her empathetic and vivid coverage on the deportations in Kharkiv region was shortlisted for an Amnesty Media Award. Her first book, Night Train to Odesa, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and won the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award. She has written regularly for the Sunday Post, London Review of Books, New Humanist, and Prospect. Her radio work includes From Our Own Correspondent (Radio 4) and BBC World Service.

Adam Higginbotham is a British-American writer born in England. His first book, Midnight in Chernobyl, published in 2019, won the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Nonfiction and the Colby Award for Military and Intelligence History. It was named one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2019 and became an international bestseller and translated into 22 languages. His second book, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space was published in May of 2024. A New York Times bestseller, Challenger has been awarded the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and named a finalist for both the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and the 2025 National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Mr. Higginbotham’s work has appeared in magazines including The New Yorker, Wired, Smithsonian and The New York Times Magazine.

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To have a copy of the book signed, Night Train to Odesa will be available for purchase ($18.95) at the Ukrainian Institute of America the evening of the event.

By purchasing a book from the UIA, you are supporting its continued cultural and educational programming and the further enjoyment of its unique presentations by our friends and community along New York’s Museum Mile.

For further information: Please contact the Ukrainian Institute of America at (212) 288-8660 or mail@ukrainianinstitute.org.

Author photo by Andrew Cawley. All right reserved.

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Title: Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War
Author: Jen Stout
Publisher: Polygon, New paperback edition (April 6, 2025)
Paperback: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 1846976944
ISBN-13:  978-1846976940
Item Weight: 9.8 ounces
Dimensions: 5.08 x .79 x 7.8 inches