A short life of the author
Andrey Kurkov (b. 1961) was born on 23 April 1961 in Budogoshch, Leningrad Oblast, Russia, and grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine. He studied foreign languages at the Kyiv State Pedagogical Institute. He writes in Russian (though he speaks Ukrainian and identifies as Ukrainian). He served as the president of PEN Ukraine.
Life and Career
Death and the Penguin (Smert’ postoronnego, 1996) — about Viktor Zolotaryov, a failed writer in post-Soviet Kyiv who shares his apartment with Misha, a depressed penguin adopted from the bankrupt zoo, and who takes a job writing obituaries for a newspaper, only to discover that the subjects of his obituaries keep dying — became a cult international bestseller. It captures the absurdity, corruption, and black humour of 1990s post-Soviet life. Penguin Lost (2000) was a sequel.
Grey Bees (2018) — about a beekeeper living in the “grey zone” between Ukrainian and separatist lines in the Donbas — was prescient about the conflict that would escalate into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Diary of an Invasion (2022) — his real-time account of the first months of Russia’s 2022 invasion — and Ukraine Diaries (2014, about the Maidan revolution) are important documentary works.
Key Works
- Death and the Penguin (1996)
- Grey Bees (2018)
- Diary of an Invasion (2022)
Collecting Kurkov
Russian-language editions are the true firsts. Death and the Penguin (2001, Harvill UK, English translation) brings $15–$40.