DRAFT

  • What does war do to us and our soul? With immense force, Fingerova recounts the life of a young Ukrainian doctor in Germany, her rage at the war, and her attempt to find solace in everyday things.
  • A book that offers support and inspires courage.

translated by: Jakob Walosczyk

How do we remain human in times of inhumanity?

Mira Zehmann is a general practitioner, mother, and wife. She comes from a Jewish family in Odesa and left Ukraine years ago with her husband to build her own life in Germany - for herself and her young daughter.

But when bombs explode in her former homeland, her world unravels, and a merciless draft blows through her life. Her GP practice becomes a crucial port of call; the queue of Ukrainian patients, all seeking Mira for comfort, healing, and compassion, grows long. Can an affair help Mira overcome her frustration with her mother-in-law's unending visit?

As Mira observes her patients traveling between worlds, she makes a firm decision: She must go to Odesa, visit her grandmother, who is over ninety, see the sea, and go dancing with her friends.

Iryna Fingerova recounts Mira’s grief, her feelings of guilt, her anger, and her resignation with moving authenticity, right up to her attempt to continue living her own life, accept the events, and perhaps find personal peace.

"The language in 'Zugwind' is powerful, impulsive, and poetic, including ventures into magical realism. In this book, which deals with themes as heavy as flight, displacement, and the loss of identity, there is a strong resonance of optimism and hope." — Spiegel

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hundert Augen
  • Translated by: Jakob Walosczyk
  • Release: 20.02.2026
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00800-0
  • 304 Pages
  • Author: Iryna Fingerova

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Buchcover von DRAFT
Iryna Fingerova DRAFT
Portrait von Iryna Fingerova
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Iryna Fingerova

Iryna Fingerova , born and raised in Odesa, currently lives in Germany, working as a doctor, journalist, and writer. Her work spans short stories, novels, plays, essays, and children’s books. Iryna Fingerova is the founder and curator of the Odesa-based Theater of the Ears  which is a firm fixture in the city’s cultural scene. Zugwind is her third novel and the first she has partially written in German.