{"product_id":"the-silver-bone-a-novel-isbn-9780063352285","title":"The Silver Bone: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2024\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Very intriguing and atmospheric ... a fascinating read in the light of contemporary events.” –Alexander McCall Smith, Bestselling Author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With its earthy prose and stunning attention to detail, this stands apart.\" –Publishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist, \"a gift for crime fiction fans\" (New York Times Book Review) that introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he tackles his first case in this compelling work of historical crime fiction, set against real life details of the tumultuous early twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKyiv, 1919. World War I has ended in Western Europe, but to the East, six factions continue to vie for control of Ukraine. Amidst the political turmoil, young Samson Kolechko is forced to place his engineering career on hold. But in the city of Kyiv everything remains up for grabs and new opportunity lurks just around the corner . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen two Red Army soldiers commandeer his home, Samson’s life is completely upended. But as Samson juggles his personal life –including a budding romance with the ingenious Nadezhda, a statistician helping run the city’s census– with the soldiers’ intrusion, he winds up overhearing their secret plans. Deciding to report them, Samson instead finds himself unwittingly recruited as an investigator for the city’s new police force.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis first case involves two murders, a long bone made of pure silver, and a suit of decidedly unusual proportions tailored from fine English cloth. The odds stacked against him, Samson turns to Nadezhda, who proves to be more than his match. Inflected with Kurkov’s signature humor and off kilter universe, The Silver Bone takes its inspiration from the archives of Kyiv's secret police, crafting a propulsive narrative bursting to life with rich historical detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Rich and compulsive, a modern classic in the making.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnna Bailey, author of Where the Truth Lies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Original and intriguing. Relocates the historical crime novel somewhere between Kafka and \u003cem\u003eThe Twilight Zone\u003c\/em\u003e.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrank Tallis, Author of Death in Vienna and Vienna Blood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mix[ing] elements of grim humor and surrealism . . . [\u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone\u003c\/em\u003e is] a winning offbeat crime novel that begs for a sequel.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A very intriguing and atmospheric novel by a highly accomplished writer. ... [\u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone\u003c\/em\u003e] is a fascinating read in the light of contemporary events.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlexander McCall Smith, Bestselling Author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A gripping whodunnit with surrealist flourishes . . . Kurkov brings to life an overlooked and much-contested episode in Ukrainian history, capturing the brutality with which Soviet forces first attempted to establish control over the city.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“If Chandler thought that danger and corruption were endemic to the Los Angeles roamed by his detective Philip Marlowe, he should have taken a look at Kyiv. . . . One hopes and prays that Ukraine still has enough Samson and Nadezhdas—and Andrey Kurkovs—to escape soon from its long, ongoing collective misfortune.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bulwark\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTranslated from the Russian by poet Boris Dralyuk, Kurkov’s prose is brisk but capacious, with a quiet flair. The innumerable annoyances and small indignities of living through conflict (persistent lice, gelatinous porridge, insufficient kindling, erratic power outages) are presented in all their grating detail. And though it is clear-eyed in its depiction of war’s sheer senselessness, \u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone\u003c\/em\u003e has an unusual poetic lightness too. - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Kurkov melds history with elements of magical realism and offsets the grim atmosphere with random bouts of humor.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Often called Ukraine's greatest living writer ... it is a gift for crime fiction fans that [Kurkov] writes in this genre.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In the tradition of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther . . . Kurkov sets crime-solving against the chaos of a turbulent era -- for his Samson Kolechko, the upheaval of Ukraine in 1919, when Cossacks, the Red Army and their White opponents, and even Chinese Communists battled in streets of a Kiev darkened by power failure ... [\u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone]\u003c\/em\u003e poses haunting moral questions about defending order in perilous days, questions that reverberate a century later in Ukraine and around the world.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDavid O. Stewart, Award-winning historian and author of The Lincoln Deception\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[\u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone\u003c\/em\u003e is a] fascinating series launch . . . the finely drawn characters and harrowing descriptions of daily life in 1919 Kyiv leave a far more lasting impression than clever genre tricks ever could. With its earthy prose and stunning attention to detail, this stands apart.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An atmospheric police procedural whose protagonist battles personal tragedy and a tangled system to solve his first case.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A glorious aural portrait of a city in dangerous flux ... The novel may be playful, but it poses fundamental questions at a time when bloody conflict has engulfed Europe again.. . . I finished \u003cem\u003eThe Silver Bone\u003c\/em\u003e wishing to read more.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] wonderfully gritty whodunnit” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePaul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperVia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44890588840165,"sku":"NP9780063352285","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063352285.jpg?v=1730233643","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-silver-bone-a-novel-isbn-9780063352285","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}