Americans in Ukraine Looking for ‘Daybreak’

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Luke Paxton and Han Lee know a good cause when they see one. When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, the American vets know what they need to do. Their time in Afghanistan has given them the skills to help fight a war and the moral clarity needed to know when a cause is just.

But are they going to fight in Ukraine for the right reason? Do Ukrainians want them there? And does either matter when bombs are dropping all over the country?

On this episode of Angry Planet, author Matt Gallagher returns to the podcast to talk about his novel Daybreak. It’s the story of Paxton and Lee as they travel to Ukraine to fight. It’s a work of fiction that strikes at deeper emotional truths about the conflict. It’s also pieced together from Gallagher’s own experiences in Ukraine, some of which wouldn’t fit neatly into a work of journalistic non-fiction.

What fiction can do that non-fiction can’t.
Exploring Lviv’s mystical toy barter alley.
The contractually required Joan Didion quote.
Why Ukrainians are suspicious of Americans who say “I want to help.”
The structure of a Daybreak movie.
Recorded 4/23/24

Go here to buy Daybreak.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love this podcast support this show through the a cast supporter feature
0:05.1	It's up to you how much you give and there's no regular commitment. Just click the link in the show description to support now. Matt Gallagher, welcome back to Angry Planet.
0:17.0	Thank you for coming on.
0:21.0	Last time you were on, it was all about controversy and not a whole lot about your book. I thought we deserved, I thought you deserved and the audience deserve to actually hear about the new novel and it would perhaps give me a chance to read it which I have now done.
0:35.9	It's excellent.
0:36.9	Thank you.
0:37.9	I appreciate that.
0:38.9	Thanks.
0:39.9	Can you tell us, it's called Daybreak.
0:41.8	Can you tell us what it's about? Sure. It's called Daybreak. Can you tell us what it's about?
0:43.4	Sure, it's a, it is fiction, it's a novel, though certainly heavily influenced by real world events.
0:50.4	It follows two U.S. military veterans of Afghanistan into Ukraine at the
0:58.0	onset of the renewed Russian invasion in early 2022. One of those American vets, Han Lee, is Soldier Soldier. He's
1:10.0	found life working at Best Buy, deeply unfulfilling, and wants to get back into the thick of things.
1:18.0	Says, you know, tells the Ukrainian recruiter in Chapter 2 of the book he wants to shoot a fucking
1:23.2	Russian invader in the face and he means it and frankly Ukraine probably needs
1:32.1	people like that.
1:32.8	You know, that's when Zelensky put out the call asking for
1:36.9	military veterans from the West to come join their defense,
1:41.4	people like Conley or probably who he was hoping to attract.
1:46.4	The other veteran and kind of our book's main character is named Luke Paxton.
1:51.7	He served in Afghanistan with Lee, but is going over for more muddled reasons.
	...

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