Samson and the Galician Bath
Band 3
Band 3
Published by Diogenes as Samson und das Galizische Bad
Original Title: Samson i bannoye delo

A troop of Red Army soldiers disappears without a trace, in the heart of Kyiv, while visiting a banya, a traditional Ukrainian bathhouse. When Samson discovers fragments of bone in the banya’s furnace, he uncovers a sinister conspiracy. In this third volume of the series about kindhearted Samson and quickwitted Nadezhda, the Ukrainian master of absurd storytelling vividly depicts a Kyiv filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters — and draws playful parallels with the present day.

Contemporary Literature, Crime Fiction
480 pages
2025

978-3-257-07326-3
Andrej
Kurkow

Andrej Kurkow, born in 1961 in what was then Leningrad, has lived in Kyiv since his childhood. He studied foreign languages and became a newspaper editor and screenwriter. Since his novel Death and the Penguin, he has been considered one of the Ukraine’s most important contemporary authors. His work has been translated into forty-five languages. Kurkow lives with his family in Ukraine as a freelance writer. In 2023, he was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Photo: © Pako Mera / Opale / Bridgeman Images

Buchreihe

Pressezitate

Le Nouvel Obs, Paris

»Ironic and multilayered, Kurkov’s narration of the past is read with reflection on the present, while Ukraine, once again, struggles for its survival.«

The Sunday Times, London

»The Lost Soldiers is not a conventional crime novel. [...] However, it is a very engaging work of fiction, told with wit and imagination by a man often described as Ukraine's greatest living writer.«

The iPaper

»Kurkov vividly depicts a city filled with political turbulence - and draws ominous parallels with present day.«