Enthralling ... Mr. Verini’s aim is a vital one: He seeks to go beyond the war crime to give shape and dimension to the everyday Ukrainians fated to become atrocity statistics at the theater ... Takes great care to convey to readers how the denizens of the theater cut across social, economic and cultural classes ... If, at times, the narrative structure sags and the character portraits blur, it’s in service to the immensity of hope and defiance extinguished by the airstrike.
Immersive ... This panorama of fearful, resilient life is superbly conjured by Verini from interviews with the refugees ... At once spare and precisely detailed. Readers should not be put off by the publisher’s subtitle, 'Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War,' which is misguided on many levels; among other things, the war is ongoing.
A grim reminder that war is hell, especially for civilians caught in the crossfire, The Theater is also an invaluable chronicle of an event that should not be forgotten.
A valuable and compelling book ... What Verini does so brilliantly is to tell the story of the shelter through those who built it and those who survived the siege of Mariupol, highlighting the courage, resilience, sorrow, and dark humor of a people under physical and emotional siege.
One of the most detailed accounts yet ... Even setting aside the staggering, if still unverified, death toll, Verini makes the case that the strike remains perhaps the most prescient for revealing the conflict’s 'innermost animus' ... Beyond the perseverance of the theater people, Verini’s reporting is marked by the distinct theme that this war is not only territorial but also cultural.
This is essential reporting about a defining atrocity of the Russo-Ukrainian War ... An authoritative account of Russia’s bombing of a shelter for displaced Ukrainians.
