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The Gardener from Ochakov
Igor walks along in the old Soviet policeman's uniform, confident that he'll have the best costume at the party. But Igor hasn't gone far before he realises something is wrong. The streets are unusually dark and empty, and the only person to emerge from the shadows runs away from him in terror.
After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, and on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957. And it isn't the innocent era his mother and her friends have so sentimentally described.
As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more and more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother's shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, and Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother's disapproval at his absences growing, and his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up with him, Igor has to survive the past if he wants any kind of future.
After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, and on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957. And it isn't the innocent era his mother and her friends have so sentimentally described.
As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more and more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother's shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, and Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother's disapproval at his absences growing, and his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up with him, Igor has to survive the past if he wants any kind of future.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
28 people are currently reading
650 people want to read
About the author
Andrey Kurkov
77 books818 followersAndrey Kurkov is a Russian and Ukrainian writer who writes in Russian (fiction) and Ukrainian (non-fiction).
Kurkov was born in the small town of Budogoszcz, Russia, on April 23, 1961. When he was young, his family moved to Kyiv, Ukraine. In 1983 Kurkov graduated from the Kyiv Pedagogical Academy of Foreign Languages and later also completed a training in Japanese translation.
Among Kurkov's most famous Russian novels are 'Smert postoronnego' (1996, translated into English in 2001 under the title 'Death and the Penguin') and 'Zakon ulitki' (2002, translated into English in 2005 as 'Penguin lost)'. Kurkov's only Ukrainian non-fiction book is 'Ruh "Emanus": istoriya solidarnosti' (2017).
Kurkov was born in the small town of Budogoszcz, Russia, on April 23, 1961. When he was young, his family moved to Kyiv, Ukraine. In 1983 Kurkov graduated from the Kyiv Pedagogical Academy of Foreign Languages and later also completed a training in Japanese translation.
Among Kurkov's most famous Russian novels are 'Smert postoronnego' (1996, translated into English in 2001 under the title 'Death and the Penguin') and 'Zakon ulitki' (2002, translated into English in 2005 as 'Penguin lost)'. Kurkov's only Ukrainian non-fiction book is 'Ruh "Emanus": istoriya solidarnosti' (2017).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
July 16, 2017
“This wine! It´s a dry white … Your friend loved it.
You can drink it on its own, without food, and the dreams it gives you … well, they´re better than any film!
Post-Soviet Ukraine.
Some have done really well, some less well and to the great majority it is business as usual.
A new start, new opportunities and a certain degree of cowboy mentality gives way to all kinds of “private enterprise” making a little on the side.
Igor is still living with his mother Elena though he long ago should have parted from home and found a job. It is very convenient if you don´t really know what you want to do with your life and furthermore have the excuse of a head injury in your childhood to fall back on.
Igor is living quite okay on the savings from selling the old family home and his mother´s good food. He has friends and likes a drink – that is a bottle – or two, and is generally having a good life, he might take up a job if the right one turns up and he would like a little excitement in his life, but that want of excitement is a bit unspecified.
Little would he know that the wandering gardener, Stepan, should provide him with more excitement than he would ever have wished for.
The story involves, in no particular order, a pair of apparently magic boots, lots of dry white, even more vodka, a lovely fish selling redhead, a wine thief, a not so lucky hacker and a lot more.
How that all end and the road Igor travels I am not going to disclose to you, I am not going to spoil your fun.
Andrey Kurkov manages to bind it all together in a long dreamlike scene.
Spanning from social satire and black comedy to magical realism, we follow Igor through his travels(!) from an idle young man to an, a bit more, mature version of himself.
Once more Kurkov demonstrates his ability to hint at days past and present, pointing out the good and the bad parts but without applying any morality or mentioning his own preferences.
If you like Kurkov´s style, you will fall for this book immediately. It has all the dark humor you can ask for, and then some.
You can drink it on its own, without food, and the dreams it gives you … well, they´re better than any film!
Post-Soviet Ukraine.
Some have done really well, some less well and to the great majority it is business as usual.
A new start, new opportunities and a certain degree of cowboy mentality gives way to all kinds of “private enterprise” making a little on the side.
Igor is still living with his mother Elena though he long ago should have parted from home and found a job. It is very convenient if you don´t really know what you want to do with your life and furthermore have the excuse of a head injury in your childhood to fall back on.
Igor is living quite okay on the savings from selling the old family home and his mother´s good food. He has friends and likes a drink – that is a bottle – or two, and is generally having a good life, he might take up a job if the right one turns up and he would like a little excitement in his life, but that want of excitement is a bit unspecified.
Little would he know that the wandering gardener, Stepan, should provide him with more excitement than he would ever have wished for.
The story involves, in no particular order, a pair of apparently magic boots, lots of dry white, even more vodka, a lovely fish selling redhead, a wine thief, a not so lucky hacker and a lot more.
How that all end and the road Igor travels I am not going to disclose to you, I am not going to spoil your fun.
Andrey Kurkov manages to bind it all together in a long dreamlike scene.
Spanning from social satire and black comedy to magical realism, we follow Igor through his travels(!) from an idle young man to an, a bit more, mature version of himself.
Once more Kurkov demonstrates his ability to hint at days past and present, pointing out the good and the bad parts but without applying any morality or mentioning his own preferences.
If you like Kurkov´s style, you will fall for this book immediately. It has all the dark humor you can ask for, and then some.
May 15, 2022
Андреј Курков се спомиње као један од значајнијих савремених украјинских аутора, али ова књига ме није баш убедила да су хвалоспеви оправдани.
Идеја јесте занимљива – једног дана се на вратима куће тридесетогодишњег Игора и његове мајке који живе у провинцији поред Кијева појављује мистериозни, доброћудни старац, који се понуди да одржава њихову башту. Игор ће му помоћи да растумачи тетоважу коју старац има на руци, тако да ће њих двојица отпутовати у Очаков (град близу Одесе) у потрази за старчевом прошлошћу. Тамо ће пронаћи неке занимљиве ствари, између осталог и стару совјетску полицијску униформу која, испоставиће се, омогућује оном ко је носи да путује кроз време – директно у Очаков из 1957. године.
Е сад, очекивао сам да ће то путовање кроз време бити средство које ће писцу послужити да да паралеле између модерне Украјине и оне из совјетског периода, да ће прокоментарисати друштвене, политичке и друге прилике итд. Међутим, од тога нема ништа, а целокупно то путовање кроз време неће баш главном јунаку пружити посебно нове увиде. Осим тога, ликови су равни, неизграђени, а многа решења су наивна и неуверљива. Оцена: 2+.
Идеја јесте занимљива – једног дана се на вратима куће тридесетогодишњег Игора и његове мајке који живе у провинцији поред Кијева појављује мистериозни, доброћудни старац, који се понуди да одржава њихову башту. Игор ће му помоћи да растумачи тетоважу коју старац има на руци, тако да ће њих двојица отпутовати у Очаков (град близу Одесе) у потрази за старчевом прошлошћу. Тамо ће пронаћи неке занимљиве ствари, између осталог и стару совјетску полицијску униформу која, испоставиће се, омогућује оном ко је носи да путује кроз време – директно у Очаков из 1957. године.
Е сад, очекивао сам да ће то путовање кроз време бити средство које ће писцу послужити да да паралеле између модерне Украјине и оне из совјетског периода, да ће прокоментарисати друштвене, политичке и друге прилике итд. Међутим, од тога нема ништа, а целокупно то путовање кроз време неће баш главном јунаку пружити посебно нове увиде. Осим тога, ликови су равни, неизграђени, а многа решења су наивна и неуверљива. Оцена: 2+.
March 17, 2016
Set in modern day Kiev, an elderly gardener comes to work for Igor, a lazy, unemployed young man, and his mother. Igor helps the gardener decipher his mysterious tattoo which sends the pair to the coastal Ukrainian town of Ochakov where they discover hidden secrets. But Igor finds out something else: when he puts on an old Soviet police uniform, he can travel back in time to 1957 Ochakov!
I suppose you could call the events leading up to it a plot but barely anything happens after Igor discovers that he can time-travel. That’s what really bugged me about this book: it’s so damn sloooooow and ploddingly paced. A lot – too much really – of this book is taken up with Igor’s mundane existence. He hardly does anything and spends his days drinking and eating, occasionally with his gainfully-employed, but still dreary, buddy Kolyan, and generally wandering about aimlessly. Wow, what an exciting, complex main character!
What does he do with his new-found time-travel ability? He buys fish and courts a fisherman’s wife, a, er, “storyline” that goes nowhere. He talks to a kid who steals wine and then gets him to take photos of the townspeople… zzz… He meets a Soviet gangster while his friend Kolyan gets in trouble with present day gangsters, two developments that were exciting but are maybe less than 3% of the overall novel. Don’t want anything too exciting to happen!
One of the novel’s few good qualities is that Kurkov doesn’t bother mentioning tedious time paradoxes that dog too many time-travel stories and just gets on with things. And regardless of jumping backwards and forwards in time, it’s a straightforward read, I just wish Kurkov was less prone to endless irrelevant digressions. He can write well and he’s at his best with brevity – I highly recommend his novella A Matter of Death and Life over this bloated nonsense.
Apparently the Ukrainians have a very nostalgic view of the Soviet days and Kurkov writing about a gangster operating in the 1950s is satirical or something. Right… So why only devote a handful of pages out of over 300? It could’ve been an effective commentary if Kurkov’s narrative were much more focused. Then again that’s not really what the novel’s about anyway, it’s about a guy very monotonously figuring out what he wants to do in life.
While competently, if blandly, written and very occasionally mildly interesting, The Gardener from Ochakov is a slow, dull and far too light read. It’s not at all entertaining with little to say – nothing pertinent to Western readers anyway. Boring, boring, boring - if I could time travel, I’d stop myself requesting this on Netgalley!
I suppose you could call the events leading up to it a plot but barely anything happens after Igor discovers that he can time-travel. That’s what really bugged me about this book: it’s so damn sloooooow and ploddingly paced. A lot – too much really – of this book is taken up with Igor’s mundane existence. He hardly does anything and spends his days drinking and eating, occasionally with his gainfully-employed, but still dreary, buddy Kolyan, and generally wandering about aimlessly. Wow, what an exciting, complex main character!
What does he do with his new-found time-travel ability? He buys fish and courts a fisherman’s wife, a, er, “storyline” that goes nowhere. He talks to a kid who steals wine and then gets him to take photos of the townspeople… zzz… He meets a Soviet gangster while his friend Kolyan gets in trouble with present day gangsters, two developments that were exciting but are maybe less than 3% of the overall novel. Don’t want anything too exciting to happen!
One of the novel’s few good qualities is that Kurkov doesn’t bother mentioning tedious time paradoxes that dog too many time-travel stories and just gets on with things. And regardless of jumping backwards and forwards in time, it’s a straightforward read, I just wish Kurkov was less prone to endless irrelevant digressions. He can write well and he’s at his best with brevity – I highly recommend his novella A Matter of Death and Life over this bloated nonsense.
Apparently the Ukrainians have a very nostalgic view of the Soviet days and Kurkov writing about a gangster operating in the 1950s is satirical or something. Right… So why only devote a handful of pages out of over 300? It could’ve been an effective commentary if Kurkov’s narrative were much more focused. Then again that’s not really what the novel’s about anyway, it’s about a guy very monotonously figuring out what he wants to do in life.
While competently, if blandly, written and very occasionally mildly interesting, The Gardener from Ochakov is a slow, dull and far too light read. It’s not at all entertaining with little to say – nothing pertinent to Western readers anyway. Boring, boring, boring - if I could time travel, I’d stop myself requesting this on Netgalley!
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June 16, 2017Description: Igor walks along in the old Soviet policeman's uniform, confident that he'll have the best costume at the party. But Igor hasn't gone far before he realises something is wrong. The streets are unusually dark and empty, and the only person to emerge from the shadows runs away from him in terror.
After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, and on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957. And it isn't the innocent era his mother and her friends have so sentimentally described.
As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more and more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother's shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, and Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother's disapproval at his absences growing, and his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up with him, Igor has to survive the past if he wants any kind of future.
3* Death and the Penguin
4* Penguin Lost
3* A Matter оf Death аnd Life
3* The Case of the General's Thumb
3* The President's Last Love
After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, and on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957. And it isn't the innocent era his mother and her friends have so sentimentally described.
As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more and more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother's shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, and Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother's disapproval at his absences growing, and his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up with him, Igor has to survive the past if he wants any kind of future.
3* Death and the Penguin
4* Penguin Lost
3* A Matter оf Death аnd Life
3* The Case of the General's Thumb
3* The President's Last Love
August 7, 2021
Все было интересно, очень лёгкая новелла, не найдешь ответ на все вопросы, но и так легко, просто один человек встретиться с другой, и начинается много чудеса, мне понравилось
September 15, 2017
I've been wanting to read a book by Andrey Kurkov for a while. I've heard fantastic things about his writing, and was so excited when I found this book on the bargain shelves at the uni bookshop. By all accounts, the guy is a great writer and storyteller. This book won't quite convince you though.
Now, don't get me wrong. I DEVOURED the first 50 pages of this book. I was exhausted and jetlagged and was on my last flight home after 5 weeks away. And I didn't want to put the book down when we landed in Canberra. For me to want to stay on a plane is a Big. Deal. It was quirky, funny, self-deprecating, and was building up to a fantastical adventure. The problem was, it built up to something that never really came. This book just fizzled out over the next 250 pages.
I just feel if you or I had discovered a way to time travel back to 1958 in Soviet Ukraine, to a town on the Black Sea called Ochakov (which is real by the way, near Odessa) we would have done something. Or at least, something more interesting than buying fish and paying a local thief to photograph people. Apparently the fish was good, but I doubt it was that good.
Everything I have read has raved about the Penguin books, including a lot of disappointed reviews of this book. So I should have stuck with the Penguin, and not fallen to the seductive glances of the bargain shelves. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but we all know it will.
Now, don't get me wrong. I DEVOURED the first 50 pages of this book. I was exhausted and jetlagged and was on my last flight home after 5 weeks away. And I didn't want to put the book down when we landed in Canberra. For me to want to stay on a plane is a Big. Deal. It was quirky, funny, self-deprecating, and was building up to a fantastical adventure. The problem was, it built up to something that never really came. This book just fizzled out over the next 250 pages.
I just feel if you or I had discovered a way to time travel back to 1958 in Soviet Ukraine, to a town on the Black Sea called Ochakov (which is real by the way, near Odessa) we would have done something. Or at least, something more interesting than buying fish and paying a local thief to photograph people. Apparently the fish was good, but I doubt it was that good.
Everything I have read has raved about the Penguin books, including a lot of disappointed reviews of this book. So I should have stuck with the Penguin, and not fallen to the seductive glances of the bargain shelves. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but we all know it will.
June 15, 2020
Another dead pan magical realist gem from this modern Ukrainian writer. He somehow manages to interweave a comparison of communist and modern Ukraine, family breakdown and reunion, chasing after a married woman, and time travel, (yes, time travel!) into a coherent and absorbing story! 7 out of 12.
February 22, 2020
Desde el inicio la forma de describir las cosas me chirriaba, constantemente dando detalles repetitivos y que claramente no aportaban nada ni a la historia ni a la descripción de ambientes, dejando una sensación constante de que se iban quedando cabos sueltos. Los personajes son bastante planos, repetitivos en sus acciones y en general en la historia no ocurre mucho, más allá de la premisa del viaje en el tiempo.
October 7, 2014
3.5 Stars. Fun ideas, interesting plotlines and very enjoyable read. I liked all the different elements, like the time travel, the photography shop, Red Valya, the hacking scandal, waking up and still having the pain of the poison, and Fima's gang, however, I feel like these plotlines and the characters could have been better developed. Interesting and fun, but it didnt blow me away or anything and I feel like it could have been executed a little better, in particular Stepan's story because i felt like he was there to start it all off but didnt really do anything after that.
June 27, 2024
Hmmm - Kurkov has written some good books, but this was not for me one of them. I considered 2 stars, but could not bring myself to go quite that low.
It’s certainly imaginative, but the story meanders as if he came up with random ideas as he went along. It does all get wrapped up at the end, but in a way I found unsatisfactory.
But if it’s imaginative it definitely not a literary masterpiece. If you read this and nothing else by Kurkov my suggestion is try again - he has written a lot better books.
It’s certainly imaginative, but the story meanders as if he came up with random ideas as he went along. It does all get wrapped up at the end, but in a way I found unsatisfactory.
But if it’s imaginative it definitely not a literary masterpiece. If you read this and nothing else by Kurkov my suggestion is try again - he has written a lot better books.
November 11, 2020
Today's post is brought to you by this big red truck.
Astute observers will note that I haven't been lawyering for a few months as Covid has taken a number of legal jobs (including mine) and so I am driving this big red thing.
I might call it Clifford, however, unlike the big red dog it has an automatic gearbox which is absolute luxury.
Anyway, while the man on the forkhoist has been loading me up I have had a bit of time to read and so this week I cracked out another Andrey Kurkov. You might remember previous reviews of his books which I have described as wodka-fuelled mayhem. It is my firm belief that this should be the description of it's own genre of literary fiction. Kurkov's world is crazy, crazy-sexy and plausibly implausible. His main characters would prefer a quiet life but for their own foibles gaining them attention, such as owning a king penguin or a predilection for wearing Soviet-era police uniforms while out drinking. Well, why wouldn't you? I've done a few strange things while in the neglectful embrace of alcohol myself (don't be shocked).
This book is typical of Kurkov's untypical mind and a typically excellent read.
Astute observers will note that I haven't been lawyering for a few months as Covid has taken a number of legal jobs (including mine) and so I am driving this big red thing.
I might call it Clifford, however, unlike the big red dog it has an automatic gearbox which is absolute luxury.
Anyway, while the man on the forkhoist has been loading me up I have had a bit of time to read and so this week I cracked out another Andrey Kurkov. You might remember previous reviews of his books which I have described as wodka-fuelled mayhem. It is my firm belief that this should be the description of it's own genre of literary fiction. Kurkov's world is crazy, crazy-sexy and plausibly implausible. His main characters would prefer a quiet life but for their own foibles gaining them attention, such as owning a king penguin or a predilection for wearing Soviet-era police uniforms while out drinking. Well, why wouldn't you? I've done a few strange things while in the neglectful embrace of alcohol myself (don't be shocked).
This book is typical of Kurkov's untypical mind and a typically excellent read.
April 18, 2022
Ich lese echt zu viele gute Bücher. Aber ich werde diesem Buch auch nicht seine wohlverdienten 4 Sterne nehmen, nur weil ich einen strengeren Eindruck machen will. Denn auch dieses Buch war unglaublich.
Igor wohnt bei seiner Mutter in einem ruhigen Vorort von Kiew. Er hat keine Arbeit und lebt vor sich hin, ohne Ambitionen oder Ziele. Doch durch den neuen Gärtner kommt er zu einer alten Milizuniform, die ihn jedes Mal, wenn er sie anzieht, durch Zeit und Raum nach Otschakow am Schwarzen Meer ins Jahr 1957 befördert. Dort schließt er Bekanntschaften mit Weindieben, einer schönene Marktfrau und Meisterdieben. Das Buch folgt Igor, wie er diesen beiden parallelen Leben nachgeht.
Im Nachhinein finde ich es schwer, die Handlung dieses Buches wahrheitsgemäßg wiederzugeben. Denn ja, es geht um Zeitreise und kleine Liebesgeschichten und die Ukraine in der Sovjektunion - aber das war nicht wirklich, was mir in Erinnerung geblieben ist, ich wage sogar zu behaupten, dass mir die Handlung ziemlich egal war. Viel mehr haben mich die Charaktere, die Atmosphäre und der Schreibstil verzaubert. Mit wunderbar einfach gestrickten Menschen, die sich gefühlt nur von Tee und Vodka ernähren, der witzigen Gleichgültigkeit als Reaktion auf eine plötzliche Zeitreise und einer typsich ländlichen politischen Apathie hat es der Andrej Kurkow wirklich geschafft, den Leser zu fesseln.
Besonders begeistert bin ich auch von dem Ende. Ich habe nämlich vor kurzem bemerkt, dass ich nur bei den wenigsten Büchern vollkommen von dem Ende überzeugt bin. Hier aber war es der Fall. Es war ein überraschender, witziger Abschluss, der perfekt mit dem sonstigen Ton der Erzählung zusammenpasste. So ein Ende, wo man das Buch weglegt, kurz lächelt und sich denkt: Nice.
"Der Gärtner von Otschakow" ist gewitzt, fesselnd und macht gute Laune, ohne kitschig zu werden. Ich muss unbedingt mehr Kurkow lesen!
Igor wohnt bei seiner Mutter in einem ruhigen Vorort von Kiew. Er hat keine Arbeit und lebt vor sich hin, ohne Ambitionen oder Ziele. Doch durch den neuen Gärtner kommt er zu einer alten Milizuniform, die ihn jedes Mal, wenn er sie anzieht, durch Zeit und Raum nach Otschakow am Schwarzen Meer ins Jahr 1957 befördert. Dort schließt er Bekanntschaften mit Weindieben, einer schönene Marktfrau und Meisterdieben. Das Buch folgt Igor, wie er diesen beiden parallelen Leben nachgeht.
Im Nachhinein finde ich es schwer, die Handlung dieses Buches wahrheitsgemäßg wiederzugeben. Denn ja, es geht um Zeitreise und kleine Liebesgeschichten und die Ukraine in der Sovjektunion - aber das war nicht wirklich, was mir in Erinnerung geblieben ist, ich wage sogar zu behaupten, dass mir die Handlung ziemlich egal war. Viel mehr haben mich die Charaktere, die Atmosphäre und der Schreibstil verzaubert. Mit wunderbar einfach gestrickten Menschen, die sich gefühlt nur von Tee und Vodka ernähren, der witzigen Gleichgültigkeit als Reaktion auf eine plötzliche Zeitreise und einer typsich ländlichen politischen Apathie hat es der Andrej Kurkow wirklich geschafft, den Leser zu fesseln.
Besonders begeistert bin ich auch von dem Ende. Ich habe nämlich vor kurzem bemerkt, dass ich nur bei den wenigsten Büchern vollkommen von dem Ende überzeugt bin. Hier aber war es der Fall. Es war ein überraschender, witziger Abschluss, der perfekt mit dem sonstigen Ton der Erzählung zusammenpasste. So ein Ende, wo man das Buch weglegt, kurz lächelt und sich denkt: Nice.
"Der Gärtner von Otschakow" ist gewitzt, fesselnd und macht gute Laune, ohne kitschig zu werden. Ich muss unbedingt mehr Kurkow lesen!
September 30, 2020
Када у живот породице Возни уђе мистериозни и интриганти врлтар Стјепан свакодневница младог, индиферентног Игора, драстично се мења. До тог момента констатно равнодушан Игор, који на запуштеном имању живи с мајком, и преживљава од кирије и инвалидске пензије, почиње да се занима за историју овог вртлара с којим открива да његова породица, која га је напустила, потиче из Очакова, малог украјинског града крај Одесе. Посетивши вртларев родни град и кућу, долазе до поседа извесних предмета његовог оца међу којима је и стара полицијска униформа. Сплетом околности, Игор открива да када обуче униформу има могућност да се на одређени период врати у прошлост, у доба СССРа и Очаков из 1957. На тај начин писац објективно и комично приказује и упоређује сцене из живота у совјетском и савременом украјинском друштву. О прошлости говори уз извесну дозу носталгије, на комичан начин дочарава свакодневницу совјетског радника и сељака у једној малој средини, једноставности таквог живота, али и извесне непријатности с којима се суочио. По свом повратку у садашњост разматра последице и начине на које би се ситуације из прошлости развијале и решавале у садашњем времену, којем даје извесне предности, попут медицинског напретка, али износи и мане, одевене у модерно рухо, које остају исте без обзира на проток времена. Пошто се Игор и вртлар из Очакова разрачунају са својом прошлошћу могу да се окрену својој позитивној будућности.
October 30, 2013
Kurkov is excellent like always
August 19, 2014
This felt like Kurkov going through the motions to me. Sad really because I have really enjoyed his books
March 8, 2022
A fascinating novel by a Ukrainian writer whose work I wouldn't have known about without the current insanity of the Russian invasion of that country and its vibrant community of human beings. Pre-dating the present situation, this is a cleverly indirectly political novel about the Soviet Ukraine past of the 1950s and the sheer optimism of a new Ukraine that still existed when this novel first appeared in 2011. It is hard, for obvious reasons, to read it in 2022.
August 30, 2022
Un livre d'un auteur ukrainien c'est l'occasion de découvrir ce pays sous un angle différent que celui proposé par les actualités dramatiques du moment... J'ai pris beaucoup de plaisir à me laisser transporter par le côté surréaliste de cette histoire ! Les personnages sont atypiques, les coutumes différentes... Une parenthèse joyeuse en Ukraine.
May 20, 2020
La idea del llibre és molt bona i original, però he estat esperant més acció durant la lectura i no ha acabat desenvolupant-se com esperava.
July 16, 2022
Another great novel from Kurkov. Filled with vibrant characters, Soviet history, and modern life in Ukraine “The Gardener from Ochakov” is fascinating, and wonderfully strange… felt like a Slavic Murakami tale!
July 16, 2024
Je me suis régalé. Univers de mondes parallèles. Cet univers n'atteint pas la perfection du sublime Murakami dans la mouvance entre deux mondes, mais c'est une bien réjouissante lecture. Absurde, la marque de Kourkov, mais l'auteur parvient presque à rendre crédible l'impossible, tant ses personnages, des gens très simples, deviennent complexes, inattendus. Avec en prime la description humoristico-acide de l'Ukraine de Kourkov, toujours brossée sans concessions, à des époques sans cesse ancrées dans des époques différences. Dans ce roman, puisque des mondes parallèles, on a droit à deux époques bien différentes, avec un dénominateur commun: les bandits-mafieux-gangsters-trafiquants qui marquent leurs empreintes. En plus du dénominateur commun à tous les bouquins de Kourkov: les indicibles hectolitres d'alcool ingurgités, je ne m'y habituerai jamais. Ici, juste chouia de cognac (ne pas oublier d'en garnir votre bar quand vous recevrez Andrei Kourkov), sinon vodka en exclusivité. Des pires aux plus catastrophiques. Et pas un seul décès éthylique, uniquement des morts violentes.
September 1, 2024
3 ⭐ y 1/2.
Pues de nuevo este autor es capaz de transportarte a una pequeña casa Ucrania donde ocurren cosas extrañas que se entremezclan con cosas muy corrientes. Este se mueve durante ratos en un mundo plenamente soviético y seguramente sea eso lo mejor del libro. Por lo demás es interesante y fácil de leer como Muerte con pingüino, pero en este, ni la historia ni los personajes llegan al nivel de la primera novela.
Pues de nuevo este autor es capaz de transportarte a una pequeña casa Ucrania donde ocurren cosas extrañas que se entremezclan con cosas muy corrientes. Este se mueve durante ratos en un mundo plenamente soviético y seguramente sea eso lo mejor del libro. Por lo demás es interesante y fácil de leer como Muerte con pingüino, pero en este, ni la historia ni los personajes llegan al nivel de la primera novela.
May 28, 2020
"La lectura de El jardinero de Ochákov supone no solo un viaje especial a las ciudades ucranianas de Kiev, Ochákov e Irpín, sino especialmente un traslado temporal; a medida que avanzamos en el relato, vamos pasando de 2010 a 1957. Cuando al anochecer, Ígor –el protagonista de la novela– se viste un viejo uniforme de miliciano que ha llegado a sus manos por casualidad, y se calza las pesadas botas de goma, abandona su mundo contemporáneo y aparece en la ciudad de Ochákov a mediados del siglo XIX. Todo a su alrededor se ha transformado: las calles, los vestidos de las personas, el dinero… hasta los viejos relojes que habían dejado de funcionar, vuelven a marcar la hora, pero es una hora que corresponde a varias décadas atrás. El uniforme y las botas son el pasado, y el pasado cambia de forma y de tamaño para adaptarse a quien se lo prueba.
El relato constituye una radiografía que pone en relación el modo de vida de la primera década del siglo XXI con los usos y costumbres de mediados del siglo pasado en la Unión Soviética. Aunque el viejo régimen ha caído hace años, sus reminiscencias están presentes en el día a día de los habitantes de las ciudades que un día fueron rusas." Luis de Dios
El relato constituye una radiografía que pone en relación el modo de vida de la primera década del siglo XXI con los usos y costumbres de mediados del siglo pasado en la Unión Soviética. Aunque el viejo régimen ha caído hace años, sus reminiscencias están presentes en el día a día de los habitantes de las ciudades que un día fueron rusas." Luis de Dios
February 22, 2016
The story of Igor doesn't seem promising, until the gardener comes to live in the shed next to the house Igor lives with his mother. There is somethinsecret about the gardener but he isn't sure what. A code on the gardener's arm is the start of discovering more about the past. While it looks that this will be the only excitement igor gets in his plain life, his life changes when his friend invites him for a birthday party and he dresses up in an old Soviet uniform.
It doesn't look like this story is much to write about, but it is really good. I feel like a read a quality story that was good, fun, different and interesting to read. There are so many elements int he story that made me really enjoy it!!!!
It doesn't look like this story is much to write about, but it is really good. I feel like a read a quality story that was good, fun, different and interesting to read. There are so many elements int he story that made me really enjoy it!!!!
December 9, 2020
Igor se viste con un antiguo traje miliciano para ir a una fiesta de disfraces con unos amigos y comienzan a suceder cosas muy extrañas...La gente lo mira con terror. Todo está muy oscuro y vacío. Igor ha viajado en el tiempo. En la Unión Soviética de 1957.
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este libro porque la historia es muy chula pero, sinceramente, pienso que podría haber dado mucho más de sí. Aún así, engancha. El contexto y la ambientación están muy cuidados pero como os digo, pienso que se le podía haber sacado mucho más provecho.
Cuando terminas de leerlo, sientes un vacío (no de los buenos) porque no acabas de entender qué ha pasado... para echar un rato puede estar bien pero no es de mis favoritos, ni de lejos.
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este libro porque la historia es muy chula pero, sinceramente, pienso que podría haber dado mucho más de sí. Aún así, engancha. El contexto y la ambientación están muy cuidados pero como os digo, pienso que se le podía haber sacado mucho más provecho.
Cuando terminas de leerlo, sientes un vacío (no de los buenos) porque no acabas de entender qué ha pasado... para echar un rato puede estar bien pero no es de mis favoritos, ni de lejos.
February 27, 2021
This was pretty lame. I've never read anything else by Kurkov and I don't think I ever will. It just came across as ... written by a teenager - I don't know, clumsy, forced, some weird choices for the dialogue that didn't seem to belong. I'm talking about the style. Maybe it's the translation and it makes more sense in Russian.
As to the plot - well, I did read the blurb and still bought the book, so I had that coming. Magic realism when done well is amazing. This was not amazing.
As to the plot - well, I did read the blurb and still bought the book, so I had that coming. Magic realism when done well is amazing. This was not amazing.
June 10, 2019
I quite enjoyed it in a whimsical little way but damn that ending was abrupt!!
July 27, 2020
Buena historia, que podría dar mucho juego pero que se va desinflando a medida que se va desarrollando la trama. Podría dar mucho más.
August 23, 2013
Igor is a bit of a loser, a 31-year old man who doesn’t have a job or any plans to get one, and survives on the interest from a small investment. He lives with his mother in Irpen, Ukraine, about an hour away from the capital Kiev. One day his mother hires a mysterious old man named Stepan to work as their gardener and handyman. Stepan has a strange, indecipherable tattoo on his arm but he has no idea what it is. Bored, Igor photographs the tattoo and takes the picture to his friend Kolyan, a computer expert. Kolyan cleans up the image to reveal an address in Ochakov, a seaside town.
Stepan travels to Ochakov to learn more about his past, and because Igor has nothing better to do, he tags along, looking for adventure and treasure. The possibility of treasure sounds absurd, but this is exactly what they find – the address on Stepan’s arm leads them to what was once the home of Fima Chagin, a infamous criminal who lived in Ochakov in the 50s. Stepan’s father too, was a criminal, who left a stash of loot at the house.
As a reward for his help, Stepan gives Igor a few of the items – a gold pocket watch (broken), rolls of hundred-rouble notes (worthless), a gun (that doesn’t fire) and a Soviet policeman’s uniform. Igor feels short-changed, but one night he wears the uniform to a costume party and finds himself in 1957 Ochakov, where the pocket watch starts ticking again, the roubles amount to a very large sum of money, and the uniform gives him an authority that strikes fear in the hearts of citizens.
Stepping awkwardly into the role of a Soviet policeman, Igor ropes a young wine smuggler into helping him spy on the criminal Fima Chagin, who is living in Ochakov at this time. This quickly leads Igor to Red Valya – a stunningly beautiful fish seller who may have had an affair with Fima and who immediately captures Igor’s attention and admiration. He begins to flit between present-day Ukraine and 1957 Ochakov, entwining his life with his dabblings in the past.
Now, genre fans, a warning. This is not the kind of book with any interest in the time travel itself, the thrills and perils it offers, or complications like time paradoxes and anachronisms. I wouldn’t say that this is the kind of book where literary fiction and sff intersect because the sff aspect is almost negligible. Time travel is just a plot device. We have no idea why or how it happens. Igor doesn’t think about it much, and isn’t worried about getting stuck in 1957. All we know is that he has a few stiff drinks, puts on the uniform, walks down a certain road, and ends up running into Vanya, the wine smuggler, at the wine factory in Ochakov in 1957. To return home he takes the uniform off and goes to sleep on the couch in Vanya’s house. He wakes up in his own bed in Irpen. He believes that taking the uniform off will send him back home, but he never tests this theory. Nor does he check to see if he needs to drink copiously to time-travel, or if he could walk a different route to end up somewhere else. The time-travel phenomena really only serves to take him to 1957 Ochakov and back, juxtaposing the places and periods, and allowing Igor to carry out his little adventure.
His very random little adventure. It’s unclear if Igor is driven by anything other than idle curiosity, and he doesn’t seem to have any goals. He wants to spy on Fima Chagin partly because he’s pretending to be a policeman, and partly because he learned about this legendary criminal when he travelled to Ochakov with Stepan. What he’d actually do with info on Fima’s whereabouts is anyone’s guess. It’s no wonder that Igor is quickly and easily distracted by Valya; he’s just hanging around looking for something to do. There’s a semblance of a plot here, but it meanders aimlessly, much like Igor himself.
Normally in books like this, something else will drive the narrative, such as the character or setting. But in this case nothing did, at least not for me. The characters are all pretty boring. Igor, who has no ambitions other than to buy a motorbike one day, is totally colourless. Vanya is little more than a plot device deployed to guide Igor in 1957, except for a vague suspicion that he might be up to something sinister. The women in the story particularly dull. Valya is there to be a beautiful but reluctant love interest. Igor’s mother Elena Adreevna does little more than cook, clean and scold her son. We meet Stepan’s daughter, who is often just a silent presence.
There are a few potentially interesting characters who seem to have better stories – Stepan; Igor’s best friend Nikolai Kolyon; and the criminal Fima Chagin. Stepan is full of secrets, almost none of which are revealed. Kolyon is vivacious and enterprising – the opposite of Igor – and as a hacker he starts selling information illegally. However, his story is mostly sidelined. Fima Chagin, a famously handsome, charismatic and successful criminal also gets sidelined when Igor loses interest in him in favour of trying to get Valya to spend time with him.
Mostly, the novel seems to be about creating snapshots of day-to-day life in modern Ukraine (Irpen and Kiev) and 1957 Ochakov, which aren’t really that different. This involves stuff like public transport (Igor taking a minibus from Irpen to Kiev, buying instant coffee at the train station), a bit of crime here and there (Vanya’s wine smuggling, Kolyan’s hacking), food (buckwheat with a knob of butter, fresh flounder and gobi from Valya’s stall, salami and salted cucumbers), and A LOT of hard liquor (vodka obviously, but also vodka shots in beer, homemade vodka, brandy, and homemade wormwood liqueur, which I just found out is absinthe).
Then, towards the end, there are a few serious developments as , and Igor starts to have some insights about life – the aimless way he’s living, human nature in general, etc. None of it was exactly profound. Or memorable. Or book-redeeming.
Reading The Gardener from Ochakov is like moving languidly from point A to point B. If books were journeys then this would be a trip to the supermarket. A Ukranian supermarket, maybe. It’s not unpleasant, you pick up a few new and unusual things, but it’s mostly mundane. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it – I’m totally indifferent.
I’d say it’s more for fans of literary historical fiction than sff readers or any reader who enjoys plot. Kurkov uses an extraordinary and unexplained phenomena to portray ordinary lives rather than tell a gripping tale. And because there’s not much of a story driving the narrative, your potential enjoyment depends on whether you find the everyday details of Ukrainian life interesting, or if you’d like to follow the wanderings of a benign drifter like Igor. Its not necessarily a bad thing, and I can see how some would find a quiet, quirky appeal in The Gardener from Ochakov, but it’s not for me.
For more reviews, check out my blog, Violin in a Void
Stepan travels to Ochakov to learn more about his past, and because Igor has nothing better to do, he tags along, looking for adventure and treasure. The possibility of treasure sounds absurd, but this is exactly what they find – the address on Stepan’s arm leads them to what was once the home of Fima Chagin, a infamous criminal who lived in Ochakov in the 50s. Stepan’s father too, was a criminal, who left a stash of loot at the house.
As a reward for his help, Stepan gives Igor a few of the items – a gold pocket watch (broken), rolls of hundred-rouble notes (worthless), a gun (that doesn’t fire) and a Soviet policeman’s uniform. Igor feels short-changed, but one night he wears the uniform to a costume party and finds himself in 1957 Ochakov, where the pocket watch starts ticking again, the roubles amount to a very large sum of money, and the uniform gives him an authority that strikes fear in the hearts of citizens.
Stepping awkwardly into the role of a Soviet policeman, Igor ropes a young wine smuggler into helping him spy on the criminal Fima Chagin, who is living in Ochakov at this time. This quickly leads Igor to Red Valya – a stunningly beautiful fish seller who may have had an affair with Fima and who immediately captures Igor’s attention and admiration. He begins to flit between present-day Ukraine and 1957 Ochakov, entwining his life with his dabblings in the past.
Now, genre fans, a warning. This is not the kind of book with any interest in the time travel itself, the thrills and perils it offers, or complications like time paradoxes and anachronisms. I wouldn’t say that this is the kind of book where literary fiction and sff intersect because the sff aspect is almost negligible. Time travel is just a plot device. We have no idea why or how it happens. Igor doesn’t think about it much, and isn’t worried about getting stuck in 1957. All we know is that he has a few stiff drinks, puts on the uniform, walks down a certain road, and ends up running into Vanya, the wine smuggler, at the wine factory in Ochakov in 1957. To return home he takes the uniform off and goes to sleep on the couch in Vanya’s house. He wakes up in his own bed in Irpen. He believes that taking the uniform off will send him back home, but he never tests this theory. Nor does he check to see if he needs to drink copiously to time-travel, or if he could walk a different route to end up somewhere else. The time-travel phenomena really only serves to take him to 1957 Ochakov and back, juxtaposing the places and periods, and allowing Igor to carry out his little adventure.
His very random little adventure. It’s unclear if Igor is driven by anything other than idle curiosity, and he doesn’t seem to have any goals. He wants to spy on Fima Chagin partly because he’s pretending to be a policeman, and partly because he learned about this legendary criminal when he travelled to Ochakov with Stepan. What he’d actually do with info on Fima’s whereabouts is anyone’s guess. It’s no wonder that Igor is quickly and easily distracted by Valya; he’s just hanging around looking for something to do. There’s a semblance of a plot here, but it meanders aimlessly, much like Igor himself.
Normally in books like this, something else will drive the narrative, such as the character or setting. But in this case nothing did, at least not for me. The characters are all pretty boring. Igor, who has no ambitions other than to buy a motorbike one day, is totally colourless. Vanya is little more than a plot device deployed to guide Igor in 1957, except for a vague suspicion that he might be up to something sinister. The women in the story particularly dull. Valya is there to be a beautiful but reluctant love interest. Igor’s mother Elena Adreevna does little more than cook, clean and scold her son. We meet Stepan’s daughter, who is often just a silent presence.
There are a few potentially interesting characters who seem to have better stories – Stepan; Igor’s best friend Nikolai Kolyon; and the criminal Fima Chagin. Stepan is full of secrets, almost none of which are revealed. Kolyon is vivacious and enterprising – the opposite of Igor – and as a hacker he starts selling information illegally. However, his story is mostly sidelined. Fima Chagin, a famously handsome, charismatic and successful criminal also gets sidelined when Igor loses interest in him in favour of trying to get Valya to spend time with him.
Mostly, the novel seems to be about creating snapshots of day-to-day life in modern Ukraine (Irpen and Kiev) and 1957 Ochakov, which aren’t really that different. This involves stuff like public transport (Igor taking a minibus from Irpen to Kiev, buying instant coffee at the train station), a bit of crime here and there (Vanya’s wine smuggling, Kolyan’s hacking), food (buckwheat with a knob of butter, fresh flounder and gobi from Valya’s stall, salami and salted cucumbers), and A LOT of hard liquor (vodka obviously, but also vodka shots in beer, homemade vodka, brandy, and homemade wormwood liqueur, which I just found out is absinthe).
Then, towards the end, there are a few serious developments as , and Igor starts to have some insights about life – the aimless way he’s living, human nature in general, etc. None of it was exactly profound. Or memorable. Or book-redeeming.
Reading The Gardener from Ochakov is like moving languidly from point A to point B. If books were journeys then this would be a trip to the supermarket. A Ukranian supermarket, maybe. It’s not unpleasant, you pick up a few new and unusual things, but it’s mostly mundane. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it – I’m totally indifferent.
I’d say it’s more for fans of literary historical fiction than sff readers or any reader who enjoys plot. Kurkov uses an extraordinary and unexplained phenomena to portray ordinary lives rather than tell a gripping tale. And because there’s not much of a story driving the narrative, your potential enjoyment depends on whether you find the everyday details of Ukrainian life interesting, or if you’d like to follow the wanderings of a benign drifter like Igor. Its not necessarily a bad thing, and I can see how some would find a quiet, quirky appeal in The Gardener from Ochakov, but it’s not for me.
For more reviews, check out my blog, Violin in a Void
March 4, 2022
3.5⭐️
‘Everything seemed slightly strange, natural and unnatural at the same time, as though old black-and-white newspaper images had been scanned into a computer and digitally coloured.’
Igor, dressed as a Soviet police officer and on his way to a party, realises he has somehow travelled in time to 1957. Jumping between the centuries, Igor has to survive in the past if he wants any kind of future.
Everyone’s eyes have been on Ukraine over the past week. While reading can provide good escapism, I’ve also turned to books to hear from Ukrainian voices and try to learn more about the history and culture of Ukraine.
I was drawn to this book for its plot, as I’m partial to a time travel story and felt it would be the perfect way to delve into Ukrainian past and present. The time travel itself, perhaps ironically, took a long time to materialise in the plot. Instead the opening chapters presented an opportunity to geographically travel through Ukraine, as the characters Igor and Stepan travelled between Kiev, Irpen, Ochakov and Lviv.
I really enjoyed Kurkov’s writing. It’s very easy to read and distinctly comedic, but in a very dry and satirical way. His descriptions of Soviet-era Ukraine are unsentimental, differing from a largely idealised version that often appears in books. In Kurkov’s Ochakov, 1957, Igor has close run ins with mass criminals and witnesses high poverty levels. But he also develops as a person, from a lazy man sponging off his mother to being somewhat mature at the end, but this transition is filled with the subtle dry humour that pervades the book. As easy as I found this book to read, the plot wasn’t my favourite. Several plot lines seemed to fizzle out, and if I’m being brutally honest, the time travel element wasn’t as interesting as I’d hoped. Still a worthwhile read, and it’s ignited my interest in Kurkov’s literature; I’d particularly be interested in reading his more recent, political works.
‘Everything seemed slightly strange, natural and unnatural at the same time, as though old black-and-white newspaper images had been scanned into a computer and digitally coloured.’
Igor, dressed as a Soviet police officer and on his way to a party, realises he has somehow travelled in time to 1957. Jumping between the centuries, Igor has to survive in the past if he wants any kind of future.
Everyone’s eyes have been on Ukraine over the past week. While reading can provide good escapism, I’ve also turned to books to hear from Ukrainian voices and try to learn more about the history and culture of Ukraine.
I was drawn to this book for its plot, as I’m partial to a time travel story and felt it would be the perfect way to delve into Ukrainian past and present. The time travel itself, perhaps ironically, took a long time to materialise in the plot. Instead the opening chapters presented an opportunity to geographically travel through Ukraine, as the characters Igor and Stepan travelled between Kiev, Irpen, Ochakov and Lviv.
I really enjoyed Kurkov’s writing. It’s very easy to read and distinctly comedic, but in a very dry and satirical way. His descriptions of Soviet-era Ukraine are unsentimental, differing from a largely idealised version that often appears in books. In Kurkov’s Ochakov, 1957, Igor has close run ins with mass criminals and witnesses high poverty levels. But he also develops as a person, from a lazy man sponging off his mother to being somewhat mature at the end, but this transition is filled with the subtle dry humour that pervades the book. As easy as I found this book to read, the plot wasn’t my favourite. Several plot lines seemed to fizzle out, and if I’m being brutally honest, the time travel element wasn’t as interesting as I’d hoped. Still a worthwhile read, and it’s ignited my interest in Kurkov’s literature; I’d particularly be interested in reading his more recent, political works.
May 25, 2023
A pleasant comedy about life in post-Soviet Ukraine, involving the main character in some time travel—for a while he lives between the present (where he lives as an unemployed no-hoper with his mother in a town outside Kiev in about 2010) and 1957 in Ochakov, a town on the Black Sea, where he inexplicably begins to travel and gets involved with some small time criminals.
It’s hard to know what the point of it all is…the bits set in the present seem to be a fairly clear black comedy on the listlessness of the post-Soviet Ukraine, whilst the time travel is perhaps a way of saying that the Soviet time wasn’t that great either…?
In all the book is an enjoyable way to absorb yourself in the lives of some everyday Russian/Ukrainian (pre-War anyway) people but it’s slightly unsatisfying as it leaves some major plot threads unresolved (just who is Stepan anyway? We never find out what he was up to, where his money comes from, or why some gangsters from 1957 wished to bequeath their wealth to him, or indeed how they actually do that given that Igor’s time travel interrupts their activities…).
As far as it’s supposed to be a satire on nostalgia for the Soviet era, it doesn’t really work because there simply isn’t enough made of the parts set in 1957. As far as it’s a satire on life in modern Ukraine it doesn’t really work either because not enough happens and the elements that are resolved are done via deus ex machina.
In any event, an enjoyable and easy to read novel: recommended—if you’re interested in Ukraine and/or post-Soviet life in general. If you’re not, it doesn’t offer much.
It’s hard to know what the point of it all is…the bits set in the present seem to be a fairly clear black comedy on the listlessness of the post-Soviet Ukraine, whilst the time travel is perhaps a way of saying that the Soviet time wasn’t that great either…?
In all the book is an enjoyable way to absorb yourself in the lives of some everyday Russian/Ukrainian (pre-War anyway) people but it’s slightly unsatisfying as it leaves some major plot threads unresolved (just who is Stepan anyway? We never find out what he was up to, where his money comes from, or why some gangsters from 1957 wished to bequeath their wealth to him, or indeed how they actually do that given that Igor’s time travel interrupts their activities…).
As far as it’s supposed to be a satire on nostalgia for the Soviet era, it doesn’t really work because there simply isn’t enough made of the parts set in 1957. As far as it’s a satire on life in modern Ukraine it doesn’t really work either because not enough happens and the elements that are resolved are done via deus ex machina.
In any event, an enjoyable and easy to read novel: recommended—if you’re interested in Ukraine and/or post-Soviet life in general. If you’re not, it doesn’t offer much.
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