The Gardener from Ochakov

Kurkov is a master story teller, using a simple lean style for a narrative that reads like a fable or myth, rich in invention, brought to life by the deadpan depiction of local people and local events * The Bay, Swansea *
Kurkov masters the details superbly, writes with constant consummate wit and soufflé lightness – Tom Adair * Scotsman *
Some see him as a latter day Bulgakov; to others he’s a Urkanian Murakami… With a characteristic mix of realism and fantasy it [The Gardener from Ochakov] will delight fans… Kurkov combines the mundane details of life in modern Ukraine (minibus taxis, tins of sprats and bottles of moonshine) with surreal elements from thrillers and sci-fi: knife wielding gangsters, or quantum leaps in the midnight suburbs. The plot rattles along like a Kiev commuter train, regularly stopping for vodka, salami and salted cucumbers… – Phoebe Taplin * Guardian *
Quickly becomes an absorbing rollercoaster, an understated fantasy with an unlikely but likeable hero – Matthew Dennison * The Times *
More than a clash of ages… It’s also a tale about fathers and sons and what they need from each other – Lesley McDowell * Glasgow Sunday Herald *
Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin, has perfected a brand of deadpan magical realism; his latest reads like a mixture of Mikhail Bulgakov and a rejected script for the amiable 1990s sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. Kurkov’s unadorned style accentuates the narrative’s simple, fable-like quality but The Gardener from Ochakov is thematically rich: one might read it as a reflection on the role of alcohol in Ukrainian society, or the no less pernicious effects of post-Soviet nostalgia – David Evans * Financial Times *

Andrey Kurkov is a writer, journalist, and the current president of PEN Ukraine. He was born in St Petersburg in 1961. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked for some time as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warder in Odessa, then became a writer of screenplays and author of critically acclaimed and popular novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin. Kurkov has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the world’s media, notably in the U.K., France, Germany, and the United States.

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