The Last Super Hero in Gaza - July 9th 2026

July 9th 2026

After a long absence, Yuriy returns on July 9 and explains he’s been overwhelmed by depression and insomnia while continuing his military duties amid constant bombings, personal losses, and worry for his seriously ill father far away. With sleepless nights stretching on, he began revisiting and rewriting stories from his years reporting wars and revolutions in the Middle East, shaping them into something new. Friends pushed the manuscript to a major Ukrainian publisher, and it’s now being edited for an October release—if it can survive the reality of a Kharkiv publishing world repeatedly hit by Russian attacks. The result is a book called "The Last Superhero in Gaza," a war book with little shooting and much more friendship, love, despair, fear—and Elvis.

Send Yuriy your letter of support [e-mail] 

Yuriy’s Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy  

Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat 

Subscribe to his substack: https://yuriymatsarsky.substack.com/ 

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
It is July 9.
It's been a very long time sinceI released the last episode.
I never wanted to quit.
I tried several times to recordsomething, but I just couldn't.
Some things are simplystronger than we are.
I was pulled into adeep, awful depression.
I knew it was coming.
I could feel it creeping closer.

(00:24):
Everything had been leading to it.
A long, bloody war with no realistichope of ending anytime soon.
The deaths of several of my friends,my father's serious illness, while he's
now thousands of miles away from me.
And then there were bombings.
Constantly.
Every few hours, something explodes.

(00:44):
Before the wind has time to carryaway the smell of smoke from
one fire, another one begins.
That doesn't do much foryour optimism either.
So I fell into depression.
It didn't relieve meof my military duties.
Instead, it gave me insomnia as a bonus.
I simply forgot how to fall asleep.

(01:07):
I could lie awake for hours, staringinto the darkness, listening to bombs
exploding somewhere in the distance, andair raid sirens wailing through the night.
At some point, I realized I was wastingan enormous amount of time doing nothing.
Depression, together with constantstress, had left me sleeping only

(01:27):
for four or five hours a day.
But it had also given mesomething I hadn't have in

a very long time (01:32):
free time.
So I decided to use it.
I began rereading, editing, and rewritingmy notes from the wars and revolutions
I covered as a journalist in theMiddle East: Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Gaza.
I found dozens of stories.
During sleepless night, I polishedthem and added the historical,

(01:53):
political, and religious contextthat they had always needed.
I shared a few of these storieswith my friends, including several
professional writers who, like me,volunteered to serve in the military.
And do you know what?
They liked them.
In fact, they liked them so much thatthey sent my manuscript to one of

(02:15):
Ukraine's largest publishing houses.
The publisher decidedto turn it into a book.
Right now, my manuscript is beingedited by a young woman who studies
at the same university as my daughter.
This is the first book for both of us.
She has never worked asa literary editor before.
I decided that this wasexactly what I wanted.

(02:37):
I didn't want my manuscriptshaped by a celebrated editor
with decades of experience.
I wanted someone who simplyloved these stories and wanted to
help make them a little better.
If everything goes according toplan, the book will be published in
October and appear in bookstores.
I hope that happens.
The publishing house and printingfacility in Kharkiv have been targeted

(03:01):
by Russian attacks more than once.
Several employees have been killed,and thousands of books have burned.
By the way, the depressionis slowly retreating, so in
a way it actually worked.
The book is called TheLast Superhero in Gaza.
Although it's a book about war,there is surprisingly little

(03:21):
shooting or exploding in it.
Instead, it's about friendship,love, despair, and fear.
Oh, and about Elvis.
I wanted Elvis to be in my book, so he is.
If you read Ukrainian, just waituntil autumn, and you'll be able
to discover it for yourself.
And thank you for waitingfor me to come back.
I'll do my best not todisappear for so long again.