The Silver Bone
Ukraine

The Silver Bone

by Andrey Kurkov

Society & Class Historical Fiction Mystery Fiction Crime 2025

Summary

Kyiv, 1919. The city is caught in the turmoil of revolution, with Soviet forces controlling its streets while White armies threaten from the west. Amid political violence, shifting loyalties, and widespread lawlessness, young Samson Kolechko witnesses the brutal murder of his father by Cossacks. He survives the attack but loses his right ear, becoming an orphan in a city where survival is increasingly uncertain.

When Red Army soldiers take over his apartment, Samson inadvertently uncovers their secret plans. His attempt to expose their activities draws him into a dangerous world of murder, espionage, and political intrigue. Soon recruited into the local police force, he begins investigating crimes that reveal the bizarre contradictions of life under revolutionary rule.

The first novel in Kurkov’s Kyiv Mysteries series, The Silver Bone blends historical crime fiction with magical realism and dark humour. Through Samson’s investigations, Kurkov portrays a society where political upheaval has transformed ordinary life and the boundaries between justice, absurdity, and survival have become dangerously blurred.

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Country
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About the author
Andrey Kurkov
Andrey Kurkov

Andrey Kurkov is a Ukrainian novelist, journalist, and screenwriter, born near Leningrad in 1961. He moved to Kyiv during childhood and graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Foreign Languages in 1983. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a journalist, served as a prison guard in Odesa, and worked as a film cameraman and screenwriter. Kurkov is internationally recognised for his distinctive blend of dark humour, absurdism, magical realism, and social commentary. His best-known novel, Death and the Penguin, follows a struggling Kyiv writer who adopts a penguin from a struggling zoo and becomes entangled in the strange realities of post-Soviet society. The novel became an international bestseller and has been translated into more than thirty languages. Other notable works include Grey Bees, which portrays life in eastern Ukraine during the conflict following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. His nonfiction books, including Ukraine Diaries and Diary of an Invasion, document Ukraine’s political upheavals and Russia’s full-scale invasion. Through fiction and reportage, Kurkov explores the absurdities of political life, the resilience of ordinary people, and the complexities of Ukrainian identity. He has become an important international voice on Ukrainian literature, culture, and the realities of war.

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Details
Published
2025
Author
Andrey Kurkov