I'm not sure it's the best book I read this week, but it's the most astonishing. The Russian black comedy Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov wins the top spot this week for sheer bizarreness.
The translation is choppy and oddly written, I'm not sure if it's done that way to reflect the original writing style or because it's a poor job, but whichever the reason, the narrative suffers for it. It took me about 60 pages to get used to it.
Viktor, our main character, is the quintessential hapless bumbler. He has fallen into a job writing obituaries for the files at a newpaper in Kiev. His adopted penguin, Misha, is his only companion. What follows is a twisted story of mafia hits and protection that all revolve around his vaunted obituaries. Viktor's life quickly becomes ridiculous and deadly.
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