Andrey Kurkov ‘Writing Kyiv in times of war’

Wednesday 29 April 2026, 14:00 Council Chamber, Council House

All Welcome

In a career spanning thirty-five years, the renowned Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov has made Kyiv a literary hero in more than twenty novels, as well as journalism and diaries. His most recent book, The Lost Soldiers, the third in the Kyiv Mysteries series, set in the city in 1919, features the detective Samson Kolechko whose secret weapon is his severed ear, a Gogolian-inspired listening device that he uses to solve cases Kurkov gleaned from a cache of original KGB case files. In novels like the award-winning Death and the Penguin, which bought him to international prominence, and Grey Bees, Kurkov’s dark humour charts the emergence of post Independence Ukrainian identity from a legacy Soviet mentality and the reality of Russian aggression. Combining the absurd and mundane, Kurkov’s fiction confronts uncomfortable truths through the personal journeys of his protagonists. Since the full-scale invasion Kurkov has spoken of the impossibility of writing contemporary fiction, shifting his focus to publishing three volumes of war time diaries and journalism – most recently, Three Years on Fire. These pieces, for the likes of The Guardian, New Statesman and Kyiv Post, reinforce Kurkov as a respected and frequently sought-after commentator. His anecdotes and stories of everyday lives humanise the continued impact of the war whilst offering distinctive cultural and political insights.

For further information please contact d.weller@uea.ac.uk