Marjinka, eastern Ukraine. Close enough to the front line that night explosions could still be called thunder.
Andrei and Sasha grow up like brothers in a village of sunflower fields, rusted Soviet exercise bars, and a cemetery no child thinks about. Then, in the summer of 2014, a shell kills Sasha’s mother.
It came from the Ukrainian side.
One loss splits one childhood in two: Sasha goes east, into the DNR; Andrei goes west, deeper into Ukraine and into the safety of doing nothing. For eight years, a border cuts through the place that made them. Then war calls them both back.
To Marjinka.
To the ruined field.
To the same bent exercise frame.
In different uniforms.
Where We Played is not a novel about who was right. It is about what a village looked like before it disappeared — and what remains when the boys who belonged to it return as enemies.
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