12 Facts About Andrey Kurkov

Andrey Yuryevich Kurkov was born on 23 April 1961 and is a Ukrainian author and public intellectual who writes in Russian and Ukrainian.

Andrey Kurkov is the author of 19 novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin, nine books for children, and about 20 documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts.

Andrey Kurkov's work is currently translated into 37 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Persian, and Hebrew, and published in 65 countries.

Andrey Kurkov's books are full of black humour, post-Soviet reality, and elements of surrealism.

Andrey Kurkov's father was a test pilot and his mother was a doctor.

Andrey Kurkov started writing at the age of seven when, after the death of two of his three pet hamsters, he wrote a poem about the loneliness of the remaining pet.

Andrey Kurkov produced poetry about Lenin, purportedly inspired by his Soviet education at the time.

Andrey Kurkov was assigned a prison guard position in Odessa.

Borrowing money from friends to fund his work, Andrey Kurkov managed to publish independently.

Andrey Kurkov reportedly received 500 rejections before being accepted, at which time he had written almost eight complete novels.

In 2024, Andrey Kurkov released The Silver Bone, the first in a new series of detective novels titled "The Kyiv Mysteries".

Andrey Kurkov is in the process of writing the third book The Public Sauna Case.