The gardener hired by Igor's mother is a mysterious man. He's about sixty years old, pretty sparing with his words, and won't drink a drop of alcohol. And what does the blurred, illegible tattoo on his upper arm mean? With the help of a computer-savvy friend of his, young Igor manages to decipher it: ›Ochakov 1957‹, it reads, and ›Efim Chagin's House‹. The quest to get to the bottom of it takes Igor not only to Ochakov, a seaport on the Black Sea 500 kilometres away from his home near Kyiv, but also to the year 1957... In Andrey Kurkov's fantastical and absurd storytelling, anything is possible – even time travel to a past from which the present can perhaps be seen much more clearly.

In ›Venetian Curiosities‹ Donna Leon tells amazing tales from the Venetian past, whilst ›Il Complesso Barocco‹ offers virtuosities by Antonio Vivaldi on the CD which accompanies this book. Venice is unique. And so is its history. But what is most remarkable are the stories that the inhabitants tell each other about what happened in the past. Donna Leon has picked up the most intriguing customs and events recounting anecdotes that might or might not be true, and thus the Serenissima is seen from an astonishing side. An elephant seeks refuge in the church of S. Antonin, courtesans are supposed to convert men to proper heterosexual behaviour, gamblers bet their palazzos, people are convicted though they prove to be innocent – Venice is full of curious and odd episodes. These stories are of as rich a diversity as the music of Antonio Vivaldi: The CD presents seven solo concerts: Violin, cello, oboe and bassoon, viola, violone and harpsichord, they all play their part. ›Il Complesso Barocco‹, founded in 1979 by Alan Curtis, is an international ensemble dedicated to Baroque music on original instruments. It has played a fundamental role in the modern revival of Baroque operas, especially those of Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Handel. ›Il Complesso Barocco‹ received the ›Antonio Vivaldi International Recording Prize‹ in 1997 as best production in the vocal section. For their Handel recordings they were awarded the ›Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik‹ in 2003 as well as, on several occasions, the international ›Handel Recording Prize‹.

The Milkman in the Night is at the same time a political satire, triple love story, black comedy, murder mystery and parable about modern Ukraine – a novel with so many punch lines, twists and stories as there are stars in the Milky Way. 

Every morning at half past four, when it is still dark and icy cold, young Irina gets on the bus to Kyiv. In the city, her breast milk is pumped out for cash while her own little daughter has to content herself with baby formula. Undoubtedly, a baby born to rich parents somewhere gets her milk, Irina thinks. In fact, however, it serves an influential parliamentarian as a magic potion . . . When Irina falls in love and no longer wants to work as a ›wet-nurse‹ , the politician is not amused. 

Andrej Kurkow brilliantly intertwines the life stories of three young couples. A crazy novel from the Ukraine, a country in which reality is more absurd than any fantasy – even such wild fantasies as those of Andrej Kurkow.

›How can I burn my husband? Where does my new liver come from? How can I dispose of my Steinway grand piano?‹ Eight Ukrainian stories provide answers to these and other questions. Ivan becomes a regular customer in a small gourmet restaurant and comes to know and treasure its head chef, Dymich. One day, Dymich disappears, but he has purposely left behind a series of dishes for Ivan, which his niece Vera is to prepare for him and serve up on five consecutive evenings. All of the dishes taste exquisite, but why does Ivan later discover tiny grains of sand between his teeth? And what does the lawyer want who turns up for dinner on the fifth night?

When the unemployed history teacher Kolya moves into a new apartment in the Old Town of Kyiv, he finds a book by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko with a great many hand-written commentaries. On closer perusal of the book, Kolya finds references to a diary by the poet which was believed to be lost without trace, and which now seems to be in a fort in the middle of the desert in Mangyshlak in Kazakhstan. Kolya sets off for Kazakhstan. Since he has no money for the journey, he stows away on a floating fish factory. A few days later he is set ashore with five litres of water and a substantial store of tinned fish, and a long march ensues. But the sun burns down relentlessly, Kolya's knowledge of the region is scanty, and he soon curses himself for having had such a crazy idea. He nearly perishes in a sandstorm, but a camel belonging to an old Kazakh pulls him out of the sand. The nomad Dshamshed takes the exhausted Kolya into his yurt, and his daughters Natasha and Gulya nurse him back to health ... An exciting adventure novel, an enchanting love story and a protest against all nationalism, whether Russian, Kazakh or Ukrainian.

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.

What would actually drive someone to become president? Sergey Stepanovich, Ukrainian President in the year 2013, is not interested in money or power. The most luxurious treat he allows himself is a warm bath at midnight with a glass of champagne, enjoying the view from his window: a Russian Orthodox church with a quaint onion dome, on which the snow is gently falling … Sergey Stepanovich has reached the most powerful point in his life. Born to a family of limited means, he got to know just the right sort of people before the fall of Communism - people who would later help him in becoming a successful businessman. But his luck runs out: his children die at birth. His wife falls into a profound depression and in desperation, she commits suicide. Stepanovich decides to become a politician - after all, he is already lonely. He works day and night, trying to forget his pain, and makes it all the way to president. But the parliament is a hotbed of intrigue, and it is increasingly difficult to decide who is acting in whose interest. Is there anyone at all in whom he can still trust?

In Lviv, a multi-ethnic town in Galicia, strange things are happening. And it’s not to do with the aged hippies who are gathering around a mysterious grave in the cemetery by night. Nor about the former KGB-man who wants to apologise to the people he spied on. And nor is it about the fact that a young woman with an allergy to money is working in the ›bureau de change‹. And it’s certainly not about the ancient Opel Vectra racing at full speed over the cobblestones to cure patients with kidney stones. No, in Lviv, far stranger things are happening. Seagulls are circling in the sky, the air smells salty: it seems as though the town, situated far inland in the West of the Ukraine, is being haunted by the sea ... In Andrej Kurkow’s Lviv, miracles can happen in every little side street and on every street corner. And that’s all down to the power of love, the boundless imagination of a writer – and the immortal music of Jimi Hendrix.

When honey tastes of war.

Grey Bees is a novel about a war that has almost been forgotten, a novel full of atmosphere and wisdom, which forces the reader to slow down, reminding him of what matters most: preserving the integrity of nature.

Beekeeper Sergey lives in Donbass, where Ukrainian fighters and pro-Russian separatists exchange gunfire on a daily basis. He survives by following the motto: Hear nothing, see nothing – stay out of it. His only concern is the well-being of his bees. Because the bees’ world continues to be ruled by intelligent order and wonderful productivity while mankind wreaks havoc. One spring, he sets off: He wants to bring the bees to a region where they can collect nectar in peace.

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 Kyiv, 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.

To Tolya, life is no longer worth living: his wife is being unfaithful to him. Tolya would really like to kill himself, but he can't bring himself to do it. Then he meets Dima, a former classmate who works in a kiosk where spirits are sold. They drink to their old friendship and tell each other about their lives, and Tolya asks Dima casually whether he knows anyone who could carry out a »very special mission«. Dima, who believes that Tolya wants to kill his wife's lover, promises to help. He knows a man called Kostya who is out of work and has just become a father, and who needs money so urgently that he will organise just about anything. All Tolya has to do is to put a photo and the necessary information about where to find the person in question into an envelope. Tolya does as he is told and goes to his favourite café to wait for the killer. But evening comes and the killer has still not turned up. Tolya, now drunk, goes home, and on the way he picks up a young prostitute with whom he spends the night and the following day. Next day, the young woman insists that Tolya calls her by her real name, Lena, and refuses to take money from him. Suddenly, Tolya no longer wants to die ... but the mission is already under way.

Victor cannot stand life at the Antarctic polar station, where he has fled to escape the mafia, much longer. He can find no peace. The dying banker, a fellow fugitive to the land of eternal ice, has entrusted Victor with his will. And he is preoccupied by thoughts of the debt he owes to the penguin Misha. Victor flies back to Moscow, to little Sonja and her nanny, whose wages Victor pays and with whom he once had a relationship. But Victor's key no longer fits the lock of his house and, as Sonja confides in him, there is now ›another uncle‹ in his bed. Victor is offered temporary lodgings – and more besides – by the banker's widow, to whom he delivers the will. But the good life cannot deter Victor from his search for Misha. In the clinic where Misha was recently operated upon, they know only that the penguin was collected by two men in black suits. Victor has a feeling that something is awry. At the cemetery where the mafia bury their ›family‹, Victor is on the lookout for funeral processions, hoping to find Misha – and discovers a promising lead…

1914. A man scatters sand from the South of Italy on the streets of Berlin. At a time of war, such behaviour is not only strange, but suspicious, too. The inspector who takes on the mysterious case finds himself caught up in a story of love and taboo between two men and a woman: Jacob Tolmeyn, an art historian from Berlin, fears persecution due to his homosexuality and takes up a research post in Southern Italy, far away from the dangers of the big city. He inspects the Staufian forts together with his assistant Beat, a former Papal Swiss Guard, when they meet Letizia, an Italian women’s rights campaigner. The three of them experience the dangers and opportunities of their era until Tolmeyn returns to Berlin, where he unwillingly attracts the inspector’s attention with a trail of sand.

A Grain of Sand on the Longlist of the German Book Prize 2014.

Old photos that inspire the imagination of the contemporary viewer in a captivating way. Veering from strange to touching, they continually pose the question: What on earth was going on? Klaus Cäsar Zehrer was inspired by pictures like these to create short stories, scenes and poems – from tender to ruthless, from poetic to unreservedly silly. And Shakespeare’s 155th love sonnet is in there too.

In the tumultuous wake of the Russian Revolution, the young, recently orphaned Samson finds himself almost accidentally signed up to the new Soviet police force in Kyiv. His first case is a perplexing mystery involving a severed ear, a bone made of pure silver and a decidedly unusual suit tailored from fine English cloth. Luckily, Samson meets the ingenious Nadezhda, who aids him in his investigation.