When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, millions of lives changed in an instant.

Millions of people were suddenly on the move. In this great flow of people was a reporter from the north of Scotland. Jen Stout left Moscow abruptly, ending up on a border post in southeast Romania, from where she began to cover the human cost of Russian aggression. Her first-hand, vivid reporting brought the war home to readers in Scotland as she reported from front lines and cities across Ukraine. Stories from the night trains, birthday parties, military hospitals and bunkers: stories from the ground, from a writer with a deep sense of empathy, always seeking to understand the bigger picture, the big questions of identity, history, hopes and fears in this war in Europe.

Night Train to Odesa begins in Russia and continues to focus on people, relationships and individuals in Ukraine. It is the account of a young female reporter with no institutional backup or security. Both in language and themes, it is accessible and highly readable.

Jen Stout is an award-winning journalist and author from Scotland. Her first book Night Train to Odesa – an account of covering the war in Ukraine as an independent reporter – was published in 2024 and was a BBC radio Book of the Week; it won the Saltire Society First Book award, and is currently longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje and Highland Book prizes. Most recently she’s written for Prospect magazine about the role of symbolic architecture in wartime Kharkiv, and language politics in Ukraine. 

Jen grew up in the Shetland Islands and has lived in Leipzig and Moscow; she was previously a BBC radio and TV journalist, and a local newspaper reporter. She lives in Edinburgh.

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