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Endling

A Novel

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Endling

Written by: Maria Reva
Narrated by: Max Meyers, Saskia Maarleveld, Maria Reva
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WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS’ TRUST FICTION PRIZE • WINNER OF THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD • WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE • WINNER OF THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE AND THE THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION AND THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE •
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE

Named A Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail • The New Yorker • CBC • Indigo • Publishers Weekly • The Irish Times • The Observer • The Guardian • The Boston Globe • The Washington Post • NPR • Good Housekeeping • Library Journal

A stunning debut novel by a writer who is “bang-on brilliant” (Miriam Toews), about a biologist in Ukraine battling to save the country’s snail species from the brink of extinction on the eve of the Russian invasion. A darkly comic novel exploring survival, love, and the impact of war.

“Startling and ambitious.” —New York Times

“Virtuosic.” —NPR, Fresh Air

“Brilliant and heart-stopping.” —Los Angeles Times

Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab. She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don't know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they'll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity.
Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours.
Together they embark on the journey of a lifetime across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species.
But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious and achingly raw metafictional spiral, Endling brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing 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, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from overseas: Can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?
Endling is a tour de force from an author who weaves a story of love, loss, humor, and hope that only she can tell. Best of 2025 Editors Select Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Survival
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Editorial Review

A snail tail
What if one of the most diverse animal groups on the planet were to lose yet another of its species? Set in Ukraine in 2022, this is the angle from which Maria Reva’s debut novel explores the environmental degradation inflicted by the region’s ongoing war. Endling unfolds through the lens of a snail conservationist named Yeva who funds her research by dating Western men in the market for docile brides. While working a guided matchmaking tour, Yeva crosses paths with a pair of sisters searching for their mother who disappeared after years of outspoken activism against the marriage industry. Not only do Saskia Maarleveld and Max Meyers enrich this listen with stellar performances, but Reva herself narrates a few chapters—alternating between Ukrainian, Russian, and anglicized pronunciations for place names with a precision that further fleshes out this intricate modern landscape. —Haley H., Audible Editor

All stars
Most Relevant
This is one of the most approachable examples of meta fiction I have ever experienced. It uses humor and absurdity to heartbreaking effect. Highly recommend.

Excellent Meta Fiction

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Beginning to end, this book was incredible. I loved the self-insertions and every single character was so life-like. It started out sort of fun and silly, but became real and heartbreaking very quickly.
It explores humanity and life in such a deep, unique way.
6 stars.

This Book is Art

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Loved everything about the book, except I’m not sure how I feel about the author’s commentary. Honestly, it felt so ill fitting when it happened first but by the end of the book, I appreciated it more. Regardless, that was minimal interruption (if I dare call it that) to what was a remarkable story, remarkably told. I also genuinely appreciated the plight of Ukrainians everywhere.

Brilliant, unique and timely

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Beautifully written and narrated, Endling will have you crying, laughing and crying again. A story about young women and their different life paths, who come together, broken families, a man in search of his true love and true home, snails and their mating habits… Enjoyed every minute of this book!

Heartbreaking and hilarious

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I really wanted to like this story because a bunch of people are reading it… But it never really went anywhere Exactly how she describes it …a bunch of disconnected yurts.

Boring disconnected

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