Penguin Lost
Penguin Lost is a novel by Andrey Kurkov. Originally published in 2005 in Russian, it was translated by George Bird 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. After fleeing from the mafia to the Faraday Station in Antarctica, Viktor passes some time at the polar research station. After a few months, he returns to Kyiv with an additional passport, in case he requires cover. Back in Ukraine and needing a job, he starts work on the election campaign for a different Mafia boss, and discovers that his pet penguin, Misha, had been removed from an animal hospital in Kyiv as part of some shady exchange among mafia operatives. His new employer gives him information as to the whereabouts of Misha, who has been removed to a private zoo in Chechnya, owned by a local strongman. Victor begins another journey, this time across the former Soviet Union, in pursuit of his beloved pet.The trip takes him, through Russia, into the heart of war-torn Chechnya, where day-to-day reality is drastically altered, and different laws of interacting among people apply. The original Russian-language title of the book, The Law of the Snail, refers to a pet saying of Victor's Mafia boss, that every person should have his or her own "shell", and he / she is alive only as long as the "shell" is not lost. Through his surreal travels and experiences, Victor finds himself pondering the multitude of manifestations of the Law, as it emerges from various angles in its different perspectives in the situations where his pursuits take him.
The Complete Review said of the novel: