Andrej Kurkow
Smert’ postoronnego (Death and the Penguin)

Published by Diogenes as Picknick auf dem Eis
English Title: Death and the Penguin

Viktor is lonely. Abandoned by his last Muse, he lives alone except for his penguin Mischa. Viktor is desperate. Somehow, he has to earn enough to keep him in bread and Mischa in fish. But he is a daydreamer and an out-of-work short-story writer, and he has nothing to show for himself except a talent for language and a drawer full of unfinished manuscripts for a novel. He has a hard time of it in Kiev, haunt of the nouveau riche and the Mafia, where the only things that count are money and business acumen. One day, however, the editor-in-chief of a big newspaper offers Viktor a well-paid job as a free-lance collaborator: Viktor is to write obituaries on famous personalities – who are, by the way, not yet dead. Viktor asks no questions and gets down to work. He doesn’t think anything of doing a job for an acquaintance of his boss on the side, and the acquaintance, who turns out to be a small-time rogue with a heart of gold, comes along quite often with a lucrative job. One day, Viktor pours his heart out to him over a glass of vodka: like all writers, he is anxious to see his work published, but the VIPs for whom he has written brilliant obituaries cling tenaciously to life... Some days later, however, Viktor opens the paper and finds his first obituary in print. Published in: Brazil (A Girafa) Bulgaria (Trud) Croatia (Bozicevic) Czech Republic (Galen) Denmark (HR Ferdinand) Estonia (Tänapäev) Finland (Otava) France (Liana Levi) Greece (Exandas) Hungary (Athenaeum 2000) Iceland (Bjartur) Israel (Kinneret) Italy (Garzanti) Japan (Shincho Sha) Korea (Sol) Latvia (Zvaigzne ABC) Lithuania (Charibde) Netherlands (Byblos) Norway (Cappelen) Poland (Noir sur Blanc) Portugal (Temas e Debates) Romania (Curtea Veche) Serbia (Paideia) Slovenia (Mladinska knjiga) Spain (El Tercer Nombre) Spain/Basque (Alberdania) Sweden (Matur och Kultur) Taiwan (Crown) Thailand (Matichon) Turkey (Iletisim) UK/USA (Harvill Press)

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