The world-renowned Ukrainian writer, Andrey Kurkov, lives just steps from Kiev's "Maidan", or Independence Square. He put aside the novel he was working on and, starting last November 21 - the night of the first pro-European rallies in Maidan - through the end of April, he chronicled the tumultuous events unfolding before his eyes. His diary of those fraught few months has been published in several European countries. An English-language translation is set to hit the bookshops next month.