LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE • WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDS Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and hope in times of encroaching darkness. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST , THE NEW YORKER , NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING , PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, THE GUARDIAN, LIBRARY JOURNAL "The book is funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure, all the while reminding us what the world stands to lose, and what it has already lost. This is essential reading." —Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a maverick scientist who scours the country’s forests, trying and failing to breed rare snails. To fund her work, she entertains Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile wives. Nastia and Solomiya are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator. Together, the three women embark on the journey of a lifetime with a truckful of kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-his-kind snail—that is, until Russia invades. A darkly comic novel, Endling draws on Reva’s own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, she probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? Once shattered, can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored? Endling is a metafictional tour de force weaving love, loss, humor, and devastation in a story only this author can tell. “ Endling ’s brilliance lies in Reva’s willingness to yank on the dangling thread of the unanswerable, unraveling the whole genre, only to masterfully stitch it back together again. Written in vivid, clear-eyed prose, at times both hilarious and devastating, Endling is an astonishment.” —2025 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Jury "Maria Reva is heartfelt and scalding in her tour de force. . . . An urgent tale of loss, camaraderie and holding on to even the smallest of hopes." —BookPage (starred review) "A thrilling ride." —Financial Times “Virtuosic…Starting out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, this witty, shape-shifting book turns into something trickier and more interesting.” —NPR, Fresh Air “An impressive high-wire act—one that blends the horror of the war with all the bleak and unintended absurdity it has produced in its wake.” —The Nation “Undoubtedly one of the best books of the year.” —Minnesota Star Tribune “A startling and ambitious whirlwind of a debut novel.” —New York Times “[A] brilliantly bizarre novel . . . The smartest thing [you'll] read all year, but don’t forget the tissues.” —Good Housekeeping “Bold and blistering . . . A shape-shifting, snail-hugging, war-weary, fist-shaking blast of a book . . . It’s a rare debut novelist who can combine a seemingly random set of topics and make them cohere. Maria Reva wraps together serious subjects like war and extinction into an entertaining and meaningful book.” —Christian Science Monitor “Brilliant and heart-stopping…Maria Reva creates beautiful, purposeful chaos…. Endling is a forceful mashup of storytelling modes that call attention to its interplay of reality and fiction — a Ukrainian tragicomedy of errors colliding with social commentary about the Russian invasion.” —Los Angeles Times “Remarkable….Reva tests the boundaries of storytelling with freshness and humor.” —The Washington Post “This work on feminist outrage, environmental destruction, and the inhumanity of war is not didactic; instead, it is a page-turning, genre-bending meta-novel as entertaining as it is gut-wrenching, whose experiments with literary form will keep readers on their toes.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Full of suspense and humor, while never letting go of what is really happening in the lives of Ukrainian people at home and abroad…A noteworthy literary achievement and also a good story, sure to be widely discussed and enjoyed.” —Kirkus (starred review) "Astonishing… this inspired and urgent novel is bound to make a major splash.” —Publisher's Weekly (starred review) “In Maria Reva's all-around brilliant novel Endling , the fate of some snails serves as a harbinger for the fate of Ukraine. The book is funny and smart, full of science, longing and adventure, all the while reminding us what the world stands