A poignant coming-of-age story with the sensitivity and haunting power of What Belongs to You and Swimming in the Dark, about a young boy wrestling with his sexuality as war breaks out in modern Ukraine.

In many ways, twelve-year-old Artem’s life in Chernihiv, Ukraine, is normal. He spends his days helping on his grandfather’s sunflower farm, drawing in his sketchbook—a treasured gift from his father, who works in America—and swimming in the river with his little brother, Yuri. In secret, Artem has begun wrestling with romantic feelings for his best friend, Viktor. In a country where love between two boys is unthinkable, Artem has begun to worry that growing up, his life will never be normal.

Then, on a February night, Artem and Yuri are woken by explosions—the beginning of a war that will tear their life in two. The invading Russians destroy their home, killing their mother and grandfather, and leaving young Artem and Yuri to fend for themselves. Fleeing in hopes of somehow reuniting with their father, the brothers traverse the country their ancestors once fought and died for, with nothing but their backpacks and each other. Surrounded by death and destruction, Artem is certain of one thing—that whatever may come, he must keep himself and his brother alive.

A harrowing and gorgeous tale of love, identity, lost innocence, and survival set in a time of devastating war, The Sunflower Boys is a powerful, heartrending exploration of young queer love, the Ukrainian spirit, and a family’s struggle to survive.

I’d heard so many good things about this book, and I am here to tell you they are all true. I don’t think I was prepared for how powerful it would be. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction about war and what it does to people, and this one felt different, mostly because this isn’t a war from a hundred or more years ago. It’s set at the beginning of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which made it hit a little harder.

Artem is twelve years old at the start of the book, living what is pretty much a typical kid’s life in Chernihiv, Ukraine. He helps his grandfather tend the sunflower farm, swims in the river with his little brother Yuri, and spends his spare time (and a lot of his time in school when he should be studying) filling a sketchbook his father sent him from America, where he went to find work. The family’s big moments are the days when his father actually calls and checks in on them.

But quietly, in the part of himself he doesn’t share with anyone, Artem is starting to develop feelings for his best friend Viktor, and he doesn’t have a word for what that means. In Ukraine, two boys loving each other isn’t something people talk about, and Artem is already starting to worry about what growing up is going to look like for him if he’s unable to push these feelings aside.

Then one night in February, explosions wake him and Yuri. The war has started. By the time the dust clears on those first days, his home is gone, his mother and grandfather have been brutally killed, and the two boys are on their own. Their only hope is finding their father, which means somehow getting themselves across a country that is in the middle of being torn apart.

This is a coming-of-age story sitting inside a war novel sitting inside an innocent love story, and Wachman pulls all three off beautifully. The book is about a boy figuring out who he is at exactly the moment everything is being taken from him. The cruelty of that timing is part of what makes the book so devastating. Artem should be allowed to grow up slowly. Instead he has to grow up in a single night, and the boy he might have been is one of the casualties.

I loved Artem. I loved the relationship he has with his family. The flashes we get of his life before the invasion are warm and specific and full of small things, which makes what comes after almost unbearable. I understood his confusion about Viktor too. The book treats that confusion with so much care. It’s the kind of feeling a twelve-year-old in any country might be working through, but in his context it carries extra weight. I kept catching myself wondering what these two boys’ lives would have looked like if the war had never come for them.

All the characters here are well drawn. Yuri is heartbreaking in his own way, a little brother trying to keep up with a big brother who is suddenly carrying way more than he should have to. But Artem is the one who broke me. The book shows you what war does to a young mind full of hope and possibility and a future, when all of that gets ripped away in a matter of hours.

This is a beautiful, and heavy read and it will sit with me for a while. The characters are unforgettable and the story is extremely timely. Definitely recommended.