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Andrey Kurkov

Death and the Penguin Paperback – 27 Feb. 2002

by Andrey Kurkov (Author)

782 ratings

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'A tragicomic masterpiece' Daily Telegraph

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

Viktor is an aspiring writer in Ukraine 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, 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.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

27 Feb. 2002
Dimensions

13 x 1.12 x 19.69 cm
ISBN-10

1860469450
ISBN-13

978-1860469459
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Product description

Review

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

From the Publisher

Andrei Kurkov's Death & the Penguin has become both a media critical success and a word-of-mouth favourite. If you like Haruki Murakami, readers say, you will love Andrei Kurkov. It is an immensely enjoyable black comedy as well as a very direct satire on contemporary Ukraine.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; New Ed edition (27 Feb. 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1860469450
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1860469459
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13 x 1.12 x 19.69 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 8,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 83 in Lawyers & Criminals Humour
- 87 in Parodies (Books)
- 88 in Cat, Dog & Animal Humour

Customer reviews:
782 ratings

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5 star		51%
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A C

Dark humour at its finest

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 October 2021

Verified Purchase

Masterfully written and an absolute page turner (assisted by the short chapters). If you are looking to get started into Russian fiction this and Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time are the two novels I would most recommend as very accessible but still full of the wit, sorrow and irony of all the greats. The penguin himself is however a true original - while representing in a sense the Ukrainian people at large, the mixture of pathos and bleak affection shared with the main character is truly unique. One of the author's earliest books but it remains one of his best.

14 people found this helpful

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Antenna

A modern Kafka's life imitating art

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 February 2019

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What is on the surface the whimsical tale of a lonely failed writer who forms a bond with the penguin he saves from Kiev Zoo when it can no longer afford to feed its exhibits, is underlain by the bleakness and black humour of the searing indictment of a state recently emerged from communism but still bedevilled by acute shortages and corruption.

Viktor is initially delighted to be given what seems like a well-played sinecure writing “obelisks” or obituaries of influential people for a newspaper, until the realisation dawns that he is somehow implicated in the premature demise of the subjects involved. In a modern take on Kafka, he is not quite clear about the nature of the crime to which he is turning a blind eye, but grasps that if ever it is explained to him, it will mean that he too has become dispensable and his own life will be on the line. The fact that, as a reader, one feels frustrated and a bit wanting in not fully understanding what is going on only adds to the surreal nature of the story.

It is not surprising that everyone seems to consume so much alcohol to deaden their feelings in this grim society. This provides one of the many examples of dark comedy, in which Sergey, the kindly district militiaman who becomes Viktor’s only true human friend, assures a drunken angler that he is “seeing things” when Misha the penguin pops up out of the ice hole in which he is fishing: “Perhaps he’ll ease off the drink a bit” he quips, unable to give up policing people’s habits even when off duty, and somewhat hypocritically since he too knocks back large amounts of cognac.

The Ukraine is portrayed as a country in which ambulance drivers have to be bribed to take a sick man to hospital where there is a lack of medicine to treat him anyway, and potatoes seem to be the staple diet, while wealthy criminals will pay $1000 to hire a penguin as a gimmick at the fashionable funeral of a contract killing victim featured in one of Viktor’s obituaries – the irony is endless.

The author does not judge Ukrainians who have been driven to a pragmatic acceptance of corruption, but describes the lonely penguin, by nature a creature evolved to work in a supportive community, as a metaphor for people living in a post-communist society who suddenly find themselves cut adrift from a mutually supportive community, and alone in a world with new, unfamiliar rules of life.

Having written the novel in 1996, Kurkov has been only temporarily gratified and ultimately depressed to find his art imitated by life in the recent moral and political chaos of the Ukraine. With first-hand experience of artistic friends liquidated by contract killers, one hopes that this perceptive writer will be safe.

The dramatic climax of this book seems unduly rushed and the ending abrupt, but also quite neat, leaving at least one striking loose end but paving the way for a sequel, or two.

15 people found this helpful

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Reminder that life in Kyiv goes on

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2022

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Viktor Alekseyevich leads an unassuming life in Kyiv, in an unassuming flat with his only companion Misha the penguin he acquired when Kyiv Zoo couldn't afford to keep all its stock. “Friendship. Something he had never had. Any more than a three-piece suit, or real passion.” He writes short – very short – stories, but they don't sell, so life looks up when “Capital News” offers him a steady income from writing obituaries (“obelisks”, the editor calls them) of prominent Ukrainian citizens. Viktor takes up the offer and turns out a selection of “obelisks” that are as indiscreet as they are flowery.

Through his new job, Viktor gains new friends. Misha-non-penguin who commissions a private obelisk for a colleague, Sergey the militiaman who looks after Misha the penguin when Viktor has to check out obelisk candidates in Kharkiv, Sonya, Misha-non-penguin's daughter who comes to live with Viktor when her father has to conveniently disappear, and Nina, Sergey's niece who acts as Sonya's live-in nanny. Quite the happy family – except that Misha-non-penguin's disappearance hints that all is not as it seems in the wider world. “An odd country, an odd life which he had no desire to make sense of. To endure, full stop, that was all he wanted.”

Like so many East Europeans, quiet acceptance in the face of this oddness makes life tolerable, and Viktor's little family enjoy a placid, untroubled life. The men take Sonya and the penguin ice-fishing in the Dnieper river (it's somehow refreshing to see the places headlined so grimly today in their ordinary colours), where a stunned drinker asks Sergey “is that a penguin or am I seeing things ?” - “You're seeing things” the militiaman replies. Mindful of his responsibilities as the local policeman, he tells Viktor “Now, perhaps he'll ease off the drink a bit.”

Ukraine being the unsettled borderland that it is, things don't last. Eventually, the political, military, commercial and diplomatic subjects of Viktor's obelisks begin to meet their ends and – for no obvious reason – Viktor and the penguin are invited to a series of funerals by an insistent mourner. When Viktor finally cries off, he's told to send the penguin on its own.

Suspicions beginning to rise, Viktor recalls uncomfortably that when he had first asked his editor why he was being asked for so many obelisks, the reply was “the moment you're told what the point of your work is, you're dead.” No matter, Viktor's philosophy is that when the terrible becomes commonplace “people accepted it as the norm, and went on living, instead of getting needlessly agitated.” His way of life isn't defeatist, anything but - “Let's drink to not being worse off. We have known better days.” So the story winds up: if it's not a wholly happy ending, it's somehow a satisfying one. And the whole story is an important reminder that there was quite recently – and surely will be again – a day to day life in Kyiv that was quietly enjoyable.
(This review originally appeared in the Chesil Magazine, Dorset)

2 people found this helpful

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Gorgeous Nicko

A clever satire which failed to engage me.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 June 2022

Verified Purchase

I did not enjoy this immensely. I felt there was a point I was missing. The point seems to be that this is a satire on post-Soviet but pre-invasion Ukrainian society, a subject of which I know relatively little. Many of the subtle nuances are consequently lost on me as a Brit, albeit one with pre-revolution Ukrainian blood.

I saw there is a sequel, but I don't expect to be buying it.

This is a clever book, but not everyone will get its cleverness - probably good reading club material though.

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