A Small, Stubborn Town: Life, death and defiance in Ukraine – ‘The mesmerising story of how in the face of a mighty army, ordinary people can say "No."' Mail on Sunday

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I'm the author of "These Are Not Gentle People," a true-crime novel set in South Africa and published in South Africa, the UK and the Netherlands.

Earlier this month, its troops blew up the Kakhovka dam, flooding settlements and towns on either side of the Dnipro River.A bunch of pot-bellied, tracksuit-wearing, down-on-their-luck guys, aka territorial defense volunteers in the full-scale war, stand over a makeshift trench at the outskirts of their tiny town.

It's a very gentle frog's-eye view of a total war, with loving portraits of the people who are overlooked at the best of times: people who had fallen through the cracks of history and welfare networks, living with passports of a country that collapsed more than 30 years ago. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Sergei grabs a Molotov cocktail and lies in wait for Russian tanks as they push towards Dead Water Bridge. Luke Harding in The Observer: “This gripping story is the literary equivalent of a superb miniature painting. A brilliant insight into the early days of the war in Ukraine through the story of one incredible town.This is an improbable but true story of incredible courage, heartbreaking loss (Voznesensk's defence wasn't a bloodless one) and sheer bloody-mindedness. Their weapons were a box of grenades, AK-47s and NLAW anti-armour missiles, supplied by the British. How do the "little people" make sense of what's happening when their leaders feed them a very different narrative to their experiences on the ground.