Death and the Penguin: A BBC Two Between the Covers Pick

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Description

In today's Ukraine, all that stands between one man and the Mafia is a penguin. Viktor is an aspiring writer with only Misha, his pet penguin, for company. Although he would prefer to write short stories, he earns a living composing obituaries for a newspaper. He longs to see his work published, although the subjects of his obituaries continue to cling to life. But when he opens the newspaper to find his work in print for the first time, his pride swiftly tums to terror and he and Misha are drawn into a trap from which there appears to be no escape.

Reviews

A tragicomic masterpiece * Daily Telegraph *
The deadpan tone works perfectly and it will be a hard-hearted reader who is not touched by Viktor's relationship with his unusual pet * The Times *
A black comedy of rare dinstinction and the penguin is an invention of genius * Spectator *
A chilling black comedy * Guardian *
A striking portrait of post-Soviet isolation... In this bleak moral landscape Kurkov manages to find ample refuge for his dark humour * New York Times *

Author Bio

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.