Jimi Hendrix live in Lviv

£9.99

Strange things are happening in the cosmopolitan town of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea. A group of ageing hippies meets at the cemetery in the middle of the night, gathered around a mysterious grave. Among them the ex-KGB officer who means to apologise to all those he spied on; the woman who is allergic to banknotes, and yet works at the money exchange; and Taras, who makes a living driving at top speed over cobblestones in his ancient Opel Vectra, curing paying passengers of their kidney stones. Kurkov’s novels are often populated by lonely people going through difficult times, and by his own brand of black humour combined with magic realism (occasionally vodka-fuelled).

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Description

“Both a pleasure and a testament to life in Ukraine, before” Sunday Times

“Ukraine’s greatest living novelist” New European


A Ukrainian Murakami” Guardian

A love letter to the beautiful city of Lviv, by the author of Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees.

Strange things are afoot in the cosmopolitan city of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea . . .

A ragtag group gathers round a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery – among them an ex-KGB officer and an ageing hippy he used to spy on. Before long, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych are teaming up to discover the source of the “anomalies”.

Meanwhile, Taras — who makes a living driving kidney-stone patients over cobblestones in his ancient Opel Vectra – is courting Darka, who works nights at a bureau de change despite being allergic to money.

The young lovers don’t know it, but their fate depends on two lonely old men, relics of another era, who will stop at nothing to save their city.

Shot through with Kurkov’s unique brand of black humour and vodka-fuelled magic realism, Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv is an affectionate portrait one the world’s most intriguing cities.

Translated from the Russian by Reuben Woolley

Additional information

Weight 0.291 kg
Dimensions 19.2 × 13 × 2.8 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

414

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

891.735 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K