false 57358470 1196997 152893 1860469450 9781860469459 71 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172246985m/152893.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172246985s/152893.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/152893.Death_and_the_Penguin 3.88 360
Victor is depressed: his lover has dumped him, his short stories are too short and the light has gone off in his dingy apartment. His only companion is Misha, the penguin he rescued from Kiev's Zoo, when it couldn't feed the animals anymore. Misha is the silent witness to Victor's despair. Misha joins in his celebration - fish and vodka - when Victor's luck seems to turn: He is commissioned to write obituaries under the pen-name "A Group of Friends". The weird thing is that the editor wants him to select subjects who are still alive, the movers and the shakers of the new, post-Communist society. Pleased with Victor's work the editor sends him his friend, also called Misha, and from then onwards known as Misha non-penguin, who commissions Victor to write an obituary about one of his shady associates. After a job-well-done Misha non-penguin and Victor get drunk on vodka and Victor confesses that he is frustrated as an obituary writer: his subjects refuse to die. The next morning his most prominent one, a corrupt politician with Mafia ties and a mistress, is dead. The tide has turned.

The original title, in russian, is Смерть постороннего, what means "Death of a stranger".]]> 88420 3.86 552 101 1996 4 0 false Tue May 26 07:39:24 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 07:46:43 -0700 2009 more...]]>