Kurkov, Andrey

A winning offbeat crime novel that begs for a sequel.

Kurkov successfully portrays the tensions of living in a war zone in a story featuring a naive Everyman intent on surviving, while giving readers keen insight into Ukraine today.

At times, the translation into English from the original Russian interferes with a fluid reading of the text. Still, the story delivers a level of intrigue sufficient to capture and sustain the reader's attention. This novel will be of great interest to readers of eastern European literature and lovers of intricate plotlines.