Description:
"The Kyiv Mysteries provide timely lessons for anyone living under an oppressive regime." --The Atlantic
"Though [The Lost Soldiers] is set more than a century ago, its parallels to conditions today are clear. A darkly comic mystery with deep roots in history." --Kirkus (starred review)
"[The Lost Soldiers is] excellent . . . Kurkov excels at capturing the profound political instability of war-torn Kyiv . . . This series continues to impress." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In this riveting installment in the Kyiv Mysteries series, detective Samson investigates the sudden disappearance of a troop of Red Army soldiers from a bathhouse.
Fresh from the case of the stolen heart, one that shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted by a new mystery that borders on the impossible. A troop of Red Army soldiers has disappeared without a trace while visiting a banya, a traditional Ukrainian bathhouse, in the heart of Kyiv. Their abandoned boots and uniforms are the only proof that they ever existed.
Faced with such a fantastical conundrum, Samson must resort to a fantastical investigation method: stitching his operative severed ear into a bathhouse worker's jacket, he is able to eavesdrop on his every move. But he discovers far more than he bargained for, further complicating matters when he uncovers human remains in the stoves and the presence of a sinister religious cult in the city.
With his quick-witted new wife Nadezhda at his side, Samson must not only solve the case but navigate the political turmoil that still grips Kyiv as civil war looms and trust between neighbors and comrades is eroded day by day. In this third volume, Andrey Kurkov, Ukraine's greatest living novelist, and a true master of absurd storytelling, vividly depicts a city filled with political turbulence and eccentric characters--and draws playful parallels with the present day.
Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
Brief description:
Ukraine's most celebrated novelist, Andrey Kurkov was a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenplay writer before becoming a novelist. His books include the 2024 International Booker Prize-longlisted The Silver Bone, the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Grey Bees, and the international bestseller Death and the Penguin. He is also a commentator and journalist reporting on Ukraine for the international media. He lives with his family in Kyiv.
Review Quotes:
"In this madcap detective story, Samson Kolechko, а young investigator in Kyiv, is assigned а seemingly impossible case . . . In Kurkov's hands, his efforts offer both serious meditations and page-turning diversion." - New Yorker
"The absurdity of war and its aftermath hang over Kurkov's elegantly satirical series of Kyiv Mysteries . . . [The Lost Soldiers is] a Kafkaesque journey through postrevolutionary Kyiv. . . . Though his tale is set more than a century ago, its parallels to conditions today are clear. A darkly comic mystery with deep roots in history."
- Kirkus (starred review)
"Excellent . . . Kurkov excels at capturing the profound political instability of war-torn Kyiv, where citizens walk around with three forms of currency in their pockets: czarist kopecks, Kerensky rubles, and Soviet rubles. These details, and lingering questions about whether daily life under such circumstances might snuff out Samson's tenderness, deepen the tension of the impossible crime at the novel's core. This series continues to impress."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for the Kyiv Mysteries
"Distinguished by its humor, heart, and subtle political urgency, this series deserves a long life." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Andrey Kurkov is often called Ukraine's greatest living writer, and it is a gift for crime fiction fans that he writes in this genre." - New York Times Book Review
"[The Kyiv Mysteries] provide timely lessons for anyone living under an oppressive regime. . . . These novels are more than detective thrillers: They are studies in the surprising ambivalence that people living under occupation may feel, even when those in power go to extraordinary lengths to cement their rule through violence, manipulation, and terror. And they are important today not just for their insight into the past but also as a guide for surviving the present." - The Atlantic