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Cover image 1 Samson and the Stolen Heart Cover image 2 Samson and the Stolen Heart Cover image 3 Samson and the Stolen Heart Cover image 4 Samson and the Stolen Heart
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Andrej Kurkow
Samson and the Stolen Heart
Volume 2
Volume 2
Published by Diogenes as Samson und das gestohlene Herz
Original Title: Serdce – ne mjaso

Samson and his colleague Kholodnyi are supposed to be investigating the sale of illegal meat. Yet they have hardly even begun when Samson’s girlfriend Nadezhda is abducted by striking railroad workers. Samson, of course, sets about trying to free her.
But what are the railroad workers up to? And why has the shadowy Chekist Abyazov been assigned to the police? Samson must get to the bottom of it all if he wants to solve the case and rescue Nadezhda.

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Crime Fiction, Contemporary Literature
432 pages
2023

978-3-257-07257-0
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
More about the author
Photo of Andrej Kurkow, © Pako Mera / Opale / Bridgeman Images

Series

Volume 2
Samson und das gestohlene Herz
Andrej Kurkow
Samson and the Stolen Heart
Show more
Volume 3
Samson und das Galizische Bad
Andrej Kurkow
Samson and the Galician Bath
Show more
Volume 2
Samson und das gestohlene Herz
Andrej Kurkow
Samson and the Stolen Heart
Show more
Volume 3
Samson und das Galizische Bad
Andrej Kurkow
Samson and the Galician Bath
Show more

Quotes

Eamon McGrath
Asymptote Journal, Bangkok

»As a historical mystery with some elements of heightened melodrama, Kurkov writes with humour and compassion about the pure-hearted Samson.«

The Times, London

»The novel’s surreal, black humour is an ideal lens through which to view the absurdities of living in a Bolshevik paradise in which Leon Trotsky wants to erect a giant statue of Judas Iscariot and police officers enforce barmy laws that change overnight.«

The Irish Independent, Dublin

»This is a must read for fans of historical mysteries and those interested in the complexities of Ukraine's turbulent history, and also for the general reader and those who have yet to encounter the impressive Ukrainian's vast oeuvre.«

Strong Words Magazine

»A new novel by Andrey Kurkov confirms him as the unofficial spokesperson for Ukraine's irrepressible spirit of improvisational anarchy.«