
Andrei Kurkov © Hartwig Klappert
Andrei Kurkov [Ukraine]
Born in 1961 in Saint Petersburg, Andrei Kurkov is one of Ukraine’s most celebrated authors, renowned for his satirical novels and sharp commentary on post-Soviet society. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked for some time as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warder in Odessa, before becoming a writer. Author of 19 novels, nine books for children, and about 20 documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts, his work is currently translated into 37 languages.
In 2024, Kurkov released The Silver Bone, the first in a new series of detective novels titled “The Kyiv Mysteries”. The second book The Stolen Heart will be published in 2025. He is in the process of writing the third book The Public Sauna Case.
Kurkov gained international fame with Death and the Penguin (1996), a darkly comedic tale about a writer and his pet penguin, which became a cult classic and was translated into over 30 languages. His other notable works include The President’s Last Love (2004) and Grey Bees (2018), the latter of which examines the human impact of the war in Eastern Ukraine through the eyes of a beekeeper navigating the conflict.
In addition to his fiction, Kurkov writes screenplays, essays, and children’s literature. His keen observations of Ukrainian society have made him a trusted voice in discussions about Ukraine’s political and cultural identity. A regular contributor to international media, Kurkov frequently advocates for Ukrainian independence and cultural preservation.
His awards include the Nikolai Gogol Prize and the Readers’ Prize of the European Literature Festival. In 2014, he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France. From 2018 to 2022, he was the President of PEN Ukraine.