Ukraine: (IN)VISIBLE
Diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome as a teenager, Adam, now a 26-year-old freelance designer, attends his first meeting at a social support group. Here he meets Anna, a charity worker with a face hemangioma, Marta a TV anchor with alopecia, and Eva a make up artist with vitiligo. The following week he moves in with them. Shaped after the writer’s own experience of living with Tourette’s syndrome, Adam tries to move from self-inflicted invisibility to being visible―in his family, career, and personal life. Invisible is a book about what it means to be different. A book that encourages acceptance and tolerance. A book about fear and escape, about the necessity of being loved and accepted. It’s about the permanent struggle with your complexes and attempts to start loving yourself. It’s about hard stories. But also about big hearts.
Author:
Ivan Baidak is a bold Ukrainian fiction writer and poet whose debut novel, Personally Me Personally for You (2013), became a national bestseller and received widespread critical acclaim. His short story collections, Role Plays (2014) and The Shadows of Our Dates (2017), also dominated bookstore bestseller lists.He later authored the socially charged novel Invisible, exploring themes of inclusion and difference, which was named one of the best books of the year by PEN Ukraine. The work inspired a theater production and several photo exhibitions dedicated to its subject matter.
Baidak’s writing is distinguished by its sharp psychological depth, vivid imagery, and masterful command of language. Set against realistic contemporary backdrops, his stories infuse everyday lives with philosophical reflection and raw emotional power. He frequently experiments with narrative form, playfully bending structure, plot, and textual rhythm to create innovative literary experiences.
