Recommended by Mr Hager
Set in post-Soviet Kiev, this is a novel that explores the chaos of the new world order through a central character who finds himself writing obituaries that start to seem more like death sentences for the mafia figures they discuss.
Victor is a struggling writer who can’t get his work published because it lacks the appropriate level of sensation, so writing obituaries is a fitting way to signal the stagnation of his own career. Ironically, his work has never been so alive, and the novel explores the interplay between life and art in a playful and thrilling way, whilst also packing in the necessary thrills of a gangster novel.
It also features a pet penguin called Misha, and Kurkov intended the penguin to be seen as a metaphor for the Ukranian individual who was suddenly bereft of the collective in the post-Soviet era: penguins are collective animals who struggle when they are alone, and Misha’s silent sadness is an extraordinary counterpoint to the chaos, violence and mayhem that is Kiev itself.
This novel was widely praised upon its publication in 2001, and it is well worth your time. It is a great example of the ways in which an author can use a penguin to ask serious questions about life, death and politics, whilst also writing a novel that is funny, silly and entertaining.
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