French author Marc Levy makes book on Ukrainian child abductions free for Russian audience

The relevant information appeared on the writer's official website.

The French novelist Marc Levy, who wrote The Symphony of Monsters about the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, has released a free Russian translation of the work. The book’s protagonist is a 9-year-old Ukrainian boy named Valentyn from the village of Rykove in southern Ukraine.

Levy has addressed Russian readers and thanked them for their loyalty.

“The Symphony of Monsters is available in Russian as an ebook. You can download it free of charge on all platforms. Thank you to my Russian readers for your loyalty,” Levy wrote.

He also explained that he wrote The Symphony of Monsters to ensure that no one who reads the novel can claim ignorance of Russia’s crimes.

“I never knew my paternal grandparents because they were deported to Auschwitz. Growing up, when I asked my teachers why nothing had been done to stop the camps, invariably the answer was ‘we didn’t know’.
When I learned about the large-scale, systematic deportation of Ukrainian children, I decided to write a novel about it. That way, those who will read it will not be able to say ‘we didn’t know,’” Marc Levy emphasized.

Marjana Savka, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Old Lion Publishing House, which will publish the novel in Ukrainian, commented on the situation.

“The book is already at the printing house. I think Ukrainian readers should know what foreigners are writing about us. He has certainly declared his support for Ukraine many times. I met him personally, and he seemed to be a very ardent supporter of ours who wanted to tell the world about Russia’s crimes against Ukraine, including the abduction of children. He is very popular, with a large audience around the world, which I also considered,” Savka said.

She added that the author’s decision to make the book freely available to the Russian audience was not discussed with the Ukrainian publishing house. Mariana Savka noted that there are often surprises with foreign authors.

“We do not support his decision and have already sent an appeal to the copyright holders asking them to remove this option from the author’s website. We hope for a positive response,” she emphasized.