Penguin Lost

Penguin Lost

First edition
Author	Andrey Kurkov
Translator	George Bird
Country	Ukraine
Language	Russian
Genre	Satire, Surrealism
Publisher	Vintage
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	256 pp
ISBN	978-0-09-946169-2
Preceded by	Death and the Penguin

Penguin Lost is a novel by Andrey Kurkov. Originally published in 2005 in Russian (as Закон улитки, English: The Snail Law), it was translated and published in English in 2010. It is the sequel to the author's novel Death and the Penguin.

Summary[]

The novel follows the life of a writer, Viktor Alekseyevich Zolotaryov, in a struggling post-Soviet society. Fleeing from the mafia to the Faraday Station in Antarctica, Viktor passes some time in a polar research station, before returning to Kyiv with a new identity. Back in Ukraine and needing a job, he starts work on the election campaign for a Mafia boss. In return he is given information as to the whereabouts of Misha, his pet penguin, which is said to be in a zoo in Chechnya. Thus begins another journey, this time across the former Soviet Union, in pursuit of his beloved pet.

The original Russian-language title of the book, The Snail Law, refers to the Mafia boss' saying that every person should have his or her own shell (that is, a protecting mob group) and he / she is alive only as long as the "shell" is not lost.

External links[]

• Review in The Guardian, March 2004
• Review in The Independent, April 2004^{[dead link]}