John Murray
Koyla’s Odyssey
The Good Angel of Death
By Andrey Kurkov (Translated by Andrew Bromfield)
Harvill Secker 376pp £12.99 order from our bookshop
Andrey Kurkov achieved international fame with his mesmerising ‘penguin’ novels Death and the Penguin and Penguin Lost, both of which have appeared in translation over the last decade. These mordant parables about post-Soviet corruption in his native Ukraine feature the same hapless Kiev hero Viktor and his beloved pet penguin Misha, both of them compelling emblems of innocence in a violent, cynical and Mafia-ridden society.
Instead of recognising Kurkov’s originality as a writer, most British critics have rushed to make easy comparisons with Bulgakov, Gogol and Dostoyevsky. It is hardly insulting Kurkov to say that he is not in the same league as the two nineteenth-century giants, and unlike all three of these
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'McCarthy’s portrayal of a cosmos fashioned by God for killing and exploitation, in which angels, perhaps, are predators and paedophiles, is one that continues to haunt me.'
@holland_tom on reading Blood Meridian in the American west (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/devils-own-country
'Perhaps, rather than having diagnosed a real societal malaise, she has merely projected onto an entire generation a neurosis that actually affects only a small number of people.'
@HoumanBarekat on Patricia Lockwood's 'No One is Talking About This'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/culturecrisis
*Offer ends in TWO days*
Take advantage of our February offer: a six-month subscription for only £19.99.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/literaryfebruary/