'Kurkov is a fine satirist and a real, blackly comic, find' Observer

Discover the international thriller, shot through with black satire and authentic detail, by one of Ukraine's most highly acclaimed authors.

When the corpse of a distinguished general and presidential adviser is found, attached to an advertising balloon, lieutenant Viktor Slutsky is sent in to investigate. Meanwhile, KGB officer Nik Tsensky arrives in Kyiv for a secret mission.

A larger-than-life hitman, bombs under furniture, a hearse, a deaf-and-dumb blonde, a tortoise and a parrot all play a part as Kurkov evokes a world of secret militia not seen before in Western fiction.

An international thriller, shot through with black satire and authentic detail, by the author of the highly acclaimed Death & the Penguin.

About the Author
Andrey Kurkov was born in St Petersburg in 1961. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked for some time as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warder in Odessa, then became a film cameraman, writer of screenplays and author of critically acclaimed and popular novels, including the cult bestseller Death and the Penguin.

Reviews
An ebullient black comedy... Reminiscent of the best Soviet dissident literature * Daily Telegraph *
Full of touches of grim insight and tactful surrealism, with just enough of the absurd to suggest a cross between John le Carre's Smiley and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita -- John Burnside * Scotland on Sunday *
Kurkov is a fine satirist and a real, blackly comic find * Observer *
Kurkov flips from mock-tragedy to comedy and back again, planting the ominous and the absurd neatly among deadpan descriptions of a daily life in denial * The Times *
Kurkov received universal praise for his debut novel Death and the Penguin... Kurkov's latest is better * Time Out *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099455257
Author Andrey Kurkov
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 140g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 16mm