Death and the penguin

Death and the Penguin is a novel by Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov. Originally published in 1996 in Russian (as Смерть постороннего, Smert' postoronnego), it was translated and published in English in 2001. The events of the novel take place in 1996 and 1997 in Kyiv. It is a bleak, satirical work with surreal elements and dark humour. The novel became Kurkov's most famous work, translated into more than 30 languages. In 1997, the novel was translated into German and published by the Swiss publishing house Diogenes, and it was for the German-language edition that Picknick auf dem Eis first appeared. The novel was first published in Ukrainian under the title Death of a Stranger in 2000, translated by Lesya Gerasymchuk. The Ukrainian translation of the novel, published between the Dutch (in the Netherlands) and Traditional Chinese (in Taiwan) editions, became the first Ukrainian translation of any Kurkov book.