Book 7: "Penguin Lost" by Andrey Kurkov

[kittiwake]

At the start of the book, Viktor is in hiding at an Antarctic research base, and has a very bad conscience about taking Misha's place on the aeroplane for himself. A dying Russian businessman who is also in hiding there, pays for his return journey in return for taking a message and a credit card to his wife in Moscow. The story is rather fragmented this time, with Viktor going to Moscow and then Chechnya in his search for Misha. In Chechnya he ends up working at a crematorium, run by a strictly neutral basis by the Russian businessman who now owns Misha, and on his return, he reluctantly becomes an Aide to a Ukrainian politician.

This is a Black comedy with a satirical take on corruption in politics, business and the media, as well as Russia's war in Chechnya, but the story is too episodic, and doesn't hang together as well as "Death and the Penguin". I found it rather too convenient that Viktor was given the credit card, which lets him buy himself out of all his difficulties.

Nottingham Round the World Reading Challenge
UKRAINE / KIEV