Death And The Penguin
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  • Published: 29 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781784879075
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99

Death And The Penguin

Formats & editions
Paperback
29 Oct 2024
Audiobook
11 Apr 2024
Paperback
15 Jun 2002
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A blackly comic, bittersweet satirical novel about Ukraine, a writer and a pet penguin

All that stands between one man and murder by the mafia is a penguin.

Viktor is an aspiring writer with only Misha, his pet penguin, for company. Although Viktor would prefer to write short stories, he earns a living composing obituaries for a newspaper. He longs to see his work published, yet the subjects of his obituaries continue to cling to life. But when he opens the newspaper to see his work in print for the first time, his pride swiftly turns to terror. He and Misha have been drawn into a trap from which there appears to be no escape.

‘A tragicomic masterpiece’ Daily Telegraph

‘A black comedy of rare distinction and the penguin is an invention of genius’ Spectator

WITH A FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR
  • Published: 29 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781784879075
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Andrey Kurkov

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 writer of screenplays and author of critically acclaimed and popular novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin. Kurkov has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the world’s media, notably in the UK, France, Germany and the States.

Also by Andrey Kurkov

Ukraine Diaries
The Gardener from Ochakov
The Milkman in the Night
The Good Angel of Death
The President's Last Love
A Matter of Death and Life
Penguin Lost
See all

Praise for Death And The Penguin

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 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

A minor tragi-comic masterpiece

Martin Booth, Daily Telegraph

A brilliant satirical take on life in modern-day Kiev. Watch out, though, as Kurkov's writing style is highly addictive

Punch

'Our anti-hero finds himself writing obituaries for soon to be deceased undesirables in the chaotic and dangerous modern Ukraine, macaberly observed by his depressed pet King Penguin Misha. Immensely readable with terrifically dark humour, loved it.'

Wayne Winstone, Ottakars

One of my favourite novels of all time

Misha Glenny
penguin pop image
penguin pop image