The Silver Bone

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A01=Andrey Kurkov
Age Group_Uncategorized
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Author_Andrey Kurkov
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B06=Boris Dralyuk
best crime novel 2024
best ukrainian writer
boris akunin
Category1=Fiction
Category=FFH
Category=FV
COP=United Kingdom
cossacks
death and the penguin
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
erast fandorin
grey bees
gripping crime novel
historical crime
historical crime novel
historical detective fiction
historical mystery
historical novel
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
russian civil war
russian revolution
softlaunch
ukraine war
ukraine's greatest novelist
ukrainian writer
war ukraine

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529426496
  • Weight: 481g
  • Dimensions: 231 x 152mm
  • Publication Date: 05 Mar 2024
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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**A Summer 2024 pick in the Times Literary Supplement and the Financial Times**

"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


"A very intriguing and atmospheric novel by a highly accomplished writer . . . A fascinating read in the light of contemporary events"
Alexander McCall Smith, Bestselling Author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Kyiv, 1919. The Soviets control the city, but White armies menace them from the West. No man trusts his neighbour and any spark of resistance may ignite into open rebellion.


When Samson Kolechko's father is murdered, his last act is to save his son from a falling Cossack sabre. Deprived of his right ear instead of his head, Samson is left an orphan, with only his father's collection of abacuses for company.

Until, that is, his flat is requisitioned by two Red Army soldiers, whose secret plans Samson is somehow able to overhear with uncanny clarity. Eager to thwart them, he stumbles into a world of murder and intrigue that will either be the making of him - or finish what the Cossack started.

Inflected with Kurkov's signature humour and magical realism, The Silver Bone takes inspiration from the real life archives of crime enforcement agencies in Kyiv, crafting a propulsive narrative that bursts to life with rich historical detail.

Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk

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 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 followed by the novels The Bickford Fuse, Grey Bees, and Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv (longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023), as well as his non-fiction work Diary of an Invasion (2022).

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