Author(s): Andrey Kurkov (translated by Reuben Woolley)

Novel | 2023 International Booker Prize long list | Ukraine | Translated fiction

"Ukraine's greatest living novelist" New European
"A Ukrainian Murakami" Guardian

A hugely entertaining romp through the beautiful city of Lviv, by the author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees

Strange things are afoot in the cosmopolitan city of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea . . .

A ragtag group gathers round a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery - among them an ex-KGB officer and an ageing hippy he used to spy on. Before long, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych are teaming up to discover the source of the "anomalies".

Meanwhile, Taras ­- who makes a living driving kidney-stone patients over cobblestones in his ancient Opel Vectra - is courting Darka, who works nights at a bureau de change despite being allergic to money.

The young lovers don't know it, but their fate depends on two lonely old men, relics of another era, who will stop at nothing to save their city.

Shot through with Kurkov's unique brand of black humour and vodka-fuelled magic realism, Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv is an affectionate portrait one the world's most intriguing cities.

Translated from the Russian by Reuben Woolley

Review: Playful and ebullient, shot through with magical twists and supernatural turns . . . A reminder of Kurkov's prodigious storytelling gifts and a throwback to an earlier, happier age * Observer *
This beguiling literary postcard from a recent, now supplanted past brims with the bittersweet charm and rueful satire of the books, such as Death and the Penguin, that established Kurkov's international reputation * Financial Times *
Both a pleasure and a testament to life in Ukraine, before -- David Sexton * Sunday Times *
Entertaining and poignant . . . A multi-layered, Chagal-like picture of modern-day Ukraine. * Glasgow Herald *
A craftily constructed novel that undermines and transforms itself in a consistently enjoyable manner without the haze of purple prose. * Irish Times *
Charming . . . A love letter to Lviv, Ukraine's linguistic and cultural capital * Guardian *
The characters are lovingly drawn and exude the sort of warmth with which the author imbues all of his creations. You enjoy the time spent in their company * The Times *
Kurkov draws us with deceptive ease into a dense complex world full of wonderful characters -- Michael Palin
A latter-day Bulgakov . . . A Ukrainian Murakami * Guardian *
A post-Soviet Kafka * Daily Telegraph *
A kind of Ukrainian Kurt Vonnegut * Spectator *
Ukraine's greatest living novelist New European -- New European

Author Biography: Born near Leningrad in 1961, ANDREY KURKOV was a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenplay-writer before he became well known as a novelist. He received "hundreds of rejections" and was a pioneer of self-publishing, selling more than 75,000 copies of his books in a single year. His novel Death and the Penguin, his first in English translation, became an international bestseller, translated into more than thirty languages. As well as writing fiction for adults and children, he has become known as a commentator and journalist on Ukraine for the international media. His work of reportage, Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, was published in 2014, followed by the novel The Bickford Fuse (MacLehose Press, 2016). He lives in Kiev with his British wife and their three children.