This has been a hard year.

I know it was hard for you too, in different ways, in different places. But here, in Ukraine, this year asked a lot from us.

From our bodies, from our hearts.

From our ability to keep believing in anything gentle.

And still, all year long, you stayed with me here. You read. You wrote. You sent messages.

You carried Ukraine in your thoughts when the world moved on to something else.

So, for a long time now, my wife and I have been asking ourselves a simple question:

Something you can hold and something you can return to when the noise gets too loud.

This book is our answer.

A story about learning to see beyond ourselves.

A World Beyond My Own is an illustrated story for children we made together over the past months, as a Christmas gift for you.

Download "A World Beyond My Own"

I wrote it here, in Ukraine. My wife, Lyubov, painted it from abroad, where she has lived in refuge with our son since 2022.

If you have been with me for some months now, you already know The Blue Scarf and you will recognize this as our second project together.

These watercolor illustrations are not just drawings. They are her discovering her own voice in art during a time when everything familiar was taken away from her.

Working on this book gave her purpose, relief, and a place to pour love when distance made everything else impossible. And it also gave us another way to stay connected, beyond messages and calls, through something we were building together.

A World Beyond My Own is not only about Ukraine.

It is about learning to look at the world through someone else’s eyes.

It is realizing that beyond our routines and our safe places, there are other lives unfolding, often quietly, often invisibly.

It goes beyond supporting a country that will never give up.

Download "A World Beyond My Own"

This book is also a celebration of your support and of the friendship that grew between us through words and attention.

A celebration of the life we are still carrying together, in a year that tried very hard to crush it.

We wanted this to be ready exactly on Christmas, but electricity had other plans as life in Ukraine often does… So please accept this as a slightly late Christmas gift, made with intention and patience.

You can download the book now, keep it for yourself, or share it with your children, grandchildren, or any young people in your life. It was made to be passed along.

A World Beyond My Own is free to take with you. You can leave a tip if you wish, but it’s entirely up to you. What matters most is that this story finds a place in your hands or on your screen.

Thank you for staying with us through this year.

For believing that beauty still matters, even now.

For showing, again and again, that love travels farther than war ever will.

Thank you.

—Lyubov and Viktor

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