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The Case of the General's Thumb

The Case of the General's Thumb

Summary

'Kurkov is a fine satirist and a real, blackly comic, find' Observer

Discover the international thriller, shot through with black satire and authentic detail, by one of Ukraine's most highly acclaimed authors.


When the corpse of a distinguished general and presidential adviser is found, attached to an advertising balloon, lieutenant Viktor Slutsky is sent in to investigate. Meanwhile, KGB officer Nik Tsensky arrives in Kyiv for a secret mission.

A larger-than-life hitman, bombs under furniture, a hearse, a deaf-and-dumb blonde, a tortoise and a parrot all play a part as Kurkov evokes a world of secret militia not seen before in Western fiction.

Reviews

  • An ebullient black comedy... Reminiscent of the best Soviet dissident literature
    Daily Telegraph

About the author

Andrey Kurkov

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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