Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov

Viktor, a 40-year-old would-be writer lives alone. He has no family, no friends, no colleagues, only a pet, a king penguin called Misha, which he got from the zoo in Kiev when animals were given away because they couldn't be fed any more*. One day he gets lucky when a local newspaper editor hires him, he's to compose obituaries of Ukrainian notables who're still alive, though. It's not what he's been dreaming of, but it's a job at least - and a well paid one at that. One day the man who usually brings him the list of names to write on, brings his 4-year-old daughter with him, a gun and a fat wad of dollars. He tells Viktor that he's responsible for the girl ...  Read the complete review

Death and the Penguin is a strange, surreal novel, which centres around the life Viktor Alekseyevich Zolotaryov and his pet penguin Micha. The novel was originally written in Russian by the Ukranian Andrey Korkov, and has a dream like quality to it, where all the protagonists seem to be overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness and a lack of understanding about the world around them. This is not a run-of-the-mill novel: if you like black humour, political satire, and a main character with webbed feed and a strong line in pathos, then this will be your sort of read! ~~the author~~ Andrey Kurkov was born in St Petersburg in 1961 and now lives in Kiev. ...  Read the complete review