Jakub Szántó
Jakub Szántó (b. 1977) is a journalist and television reporter. He holds a Doctorate in Modern History from Charles University in Prague. He has covered many international crises for television, focusing primarily on the Middle East and Africa. Szántó is the holder of the Open Society Fund Prague’s Journalism Award (2014) and the Ferdinand Peroutka Award for journalism (2017). Drawing from over two decades of reporting, crowned by five years as a permanent correspondent in the Middle East, the author offers in his two books, Behind the Curtain of War and From Isratine with Love, an unorthodox view of the Israelite and Palestinian peoples– their lifestyle, culture, and history. This year, together with his Czech TV correspondents, he wrote Putin’s War, a unique chronicle of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
THE BEST-SELLING BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 SO FAR
Ukraine’s Struggle
by Czech TV Correspondents
May 2024, 240 pages
Available material: English synopsis
A report on the state of the country and its people, directly from the conflict zone
Since February 24, 2022, Ukraine has been resisting unbridled Russian aggression. Millions have fled their homes, tens of thousands have died, and brutal destruction has not spared kindergartens, museums, or churches. The world admires how Ukrainians, under immense wartime pressure, have refused to submit to the will of the Moscow dictator. The vast country struggles not only with the overwhelming eastern invaders but also with its own cultural and historical challenges. A team of Czech Television reporters provides an unfiltered critical view of the weaknesses within Ukraine, such as post-Soviet rigidity, endemic corruption, institutionalized machismo, and intergenerational tension. Yet, they find sparks of hope in the determination of young men and women to defend their homeland and transform it into a prospering, free-thinking democracy.
