Immediately enhanced by good writing, and slow development of characters and their narrative chevron .. farther in, after brutal murder, and fortuitous coupling with strong woman, Samson (with a detached ear that can hear long distance) becomes police, chasing his father's desk .. this period between wars and dissolution of public order is testing for all .. the crime story gets a bit convoluted but really good in the end.

📚The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov

It is of course hugely interesting to read anything by a Ukrainian writer at the moment and impossible to avoid drawing parallels to what’s happening with the current war. The Silver Bone cleverly weaves in elements of a detective story with magical realism and the turbulent post-revolutionary period of Ukraine in the 1920s. The shifting political landscape is always a place for magical realism to creep in, just as Rushdie so spectacularly does with post-independence India in Midnight’s Children. I think that where these moments of enormous, earth shattering transition happen and where the traditional structures of the every day are broken down by political events are where it seems ripe to introduce magic as nothing is certain anymore.

Samson follows on in the history of the detective by seeming to know more than anyone ever possibly could deduct from crime but this time with a special secret - an ear that was cut off him by a Cossack but that still retains the ability to hear even when he’s miles away.

The novel is a clever mixture of political commentary and lesson into the history of Ukraine. It shouldn’t be read so much as a detective novel but rather as a literary experiment into how new societies are made and who flourishes within them. The detective strands get picked up and lost in a way that will frustrate a crime aficionado but anyone who wants a slightly off-kilter read will very much enjoy this.

Kyiv is in turmoil, it's building itself up after the turmoil of the war (WW1) and the changes in regime after the Bolshevik revoltion. Nothing is safe, not even going to the tailor to collect your suit.

In this turbulence, we find Samson, a young student, injured and on his own trying to deal with the cards given to him. In this way we explore, crumbling institutions, new institutions, the logistics of a city in revolution and of course murder. Samson had quite a lot to deal with and yes he might have felt like needing a little extra help but the 'artificial' deus ex machina introduced by Kurkov felt reductive and except for helping him with the plot, gave nothing more to the story or to Samson himself.

Kurkov has a creaky step in this one just like he had in his Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv. It must either have a special meaning which is escaping me or it's a Kurkov motif which we will get glimpses of in his books.

<i>An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.</i>

[book:Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv|123248566]

I’ve loved the author’s previous novels especially Death and the Penguin so was thrilled to have the opportunity to read The Silver Bone.
It’s set in post revolutionary Kyiv when after the death of his father Samson accidentally joins the police force. Samson is a likeable hero, an innocent and naive young man who gets caught up in post revolutionary intrigue, The Silver Bone is a well written, thoughtful and sometimes humorous novel with touches of magic realism. The author really captures the sense of time and place and I was completely immersed in the story.
Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I like crime fiction generally, have been a Kurkov fan since Death and the Penguin, saw him speak a couple of months ago and heard about his struggles to get back into writing fiction when his country is at war.

It’s set in Kyiv in 1919 and is about a very confusing and painful period in Ukrainian and Russian history, in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. There are many details about hunger, violence, ideological contradictions, rapid changes which reminded me of Marina Tsvetaeva’s Moscow Diaries from the same period. But there is also a fantasy element to it, a cut-off ear stuffed in a drawer which can eavesdrop on people, that could have come straight from Bulgakov or Gogol – probably a deliberate choice, since both of those writers have strong Ukrainian links, although they wrote in Russian, just like Kurkov himself.

It is too slow-paced to satisfy crime fiction aficionados, too full of historical details and descriptions, with a forgettable whodunit element that I really didn’t care about solving. However, as an insight into a particular time and place, it is fascinating, with absurd and grotesque elements that perfectly reflect that time and place.

I quite enjoyed reading this, but am not sure it makes sense to have it on the International Booker longlist.

ALT! I just discovered a new love interest in the world of mysteries and I think this story is excellent.
A fascinating and intriguing historical timeframe, a solid and well plotted mystery, well developed characters.
It kept me reading and guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

'The Silver Bone' opens with a brutal, senseless act of violence - the killing of man in the streets of Kyiv in 1919 by Cossacks. His son, Samson, escapes minus one ear. With the last of his family gone, Samson must find his way in the newly occupied city, and gets a job as a police investigator. He also discovers that his severed ear - now kept in a sealed tin in a desk drawer - enables him to hear whatever is happening nearby, providing him with a magical-realist hidden microphone. With his unorthodox listening device, he must solve the mystery of a plot to steal silver, whilst not getting shot by the criminals he seeks or any of the warring factions in the city.

Although I initially didn't like the story, perhaps because of its harsh start, by about chapter ten I had got into it. Once Samson is working for the police it gets good and gripping, and the odd mystery drew me in. Samson is a likeable character, and there are lots of likeable and interesting supporting characters. Apparently some of the cases are based on real ones from the Kyiv police archives, and it certainly has a ring of truth about it. I'm usually not keen on magical realism but somehow it doesn't jar in Kurkov's books, perhaps because the factual reality of life in Soviet times was so strange itself. It's also restricted to just the ear, so the limited nature makes it easier to manage.

Having a character within the police in such an interesting historical setting provides lots of opportunities for story telling and I'm pleased that the author implies there will be a sequel. By the time I was three quarters of the way through I was already hoping for one, as the characters and setting have a lot more to offer. Soviet times provide a setting that is both alien and very relatable, with a lot to say about human behaviour that applies to anywhere in the world and any circumstances. Kurkov's style is very readable and flows well, which is also a compliment to the translator for achieving the same in English.

I would recommend this to fans of crime novels, literary novels and those with an interest in the Soviet era or Ukraine. If you like detective stories, the setting and style set it apart from the pack. If you enjoy general reading without worrying too much about genre, there's plenty in here aside from the mystery element. I'm already looking forwards to revisiting the characters and finding another bizarre puzzle in Red Army occupied Kyiv in the next instalment.

Andrey Kurkov is a Ukranian author, born in Russia and who writes his fiction in Russian. In his latest book, and possible start of a new series, her takes readers to Ukraine in 1919, post World War One and still in the chaos that followed that conflict and the Russian Revolution. The Silver Bone (translated by Boris Drayluk) is a mystery story, a procedural of sorts, but Kurkov is much more interested in the place and time than in the mystery itself.
When The Silver Bone opens, engineer Samson and his father are accosted by Cossacks. Samson’s father dies and his he has his ear cut off. Despite this tragedy, Samson quickly has to deal with light fingered Russian troops who move into his house and the requisitioning of his furniture. But it is the removal of his father’s desk that leads Samson into his new role. He follows the desk to the local police station and while he does not get it back he is offered a job with the police and some on the job training. Using his new position to investigate his dodgy lodgers leads Samson to further crime and corruption which he tries to investigate reigns around him.
As already noted, while The Silver Bone is overall a historical police procedural, Kurkov does not really even get to this aspect of the plot until almost half-way through. Kurkov is more interested in fleshing out Samson’s life and with the social and political ructions around him. That, together with a hint of romance with a formidable woman and a splash of magical realism connected to Samson’s amputated ear creates a rich and surprising tale.
Good crime fiction is often only a scaffold used to explore and reveal places and broader personal, social and political issues. And that is the case here. Kurkov takes readers into the muddy, violent but also community-driven streets of Kyiv in the early twentieth century through the eyes of a character who readers will want to return to.

An interesting tale set in the Ukraine at the end of World War I. Samson the hero is essentially press ganged into being a policeman investigating at times murders and thefts that he sees are connected despite the doubts of his superior. He lost an ear at the start of the story but it still seems to work kept in a tin in his father’s desk. Unbelievably this makes sense in this blood soaked yarn which ends with the classic to be continued comment !

This is the first Kurkov book I have read. I read it quite quickly and never considered giving up on it, but I found it all a bit of a jumble. There were so many groups of soldiers, police, and partisan fighters all shooting each other it did become repetitive. Samson was a likable hero but a bit naive. After reading the brief history of that period in Ukraine, I thought the book could have been so much more. Despite my negativity, I did enjoy it and will read the sequel.

The Silver Bone was an enjoyable read, a historical mystery with fabulist elements (they're quite small so I would hestitate to call the entire thing fabulism). Kurkov quite satisfyingly brings 1919 Kyiv to life off the page and the translation is deft and readable. The mystery itself takes a little while to get going, but it's intriguing enough once it does. The only real issue I would have with the book is that the resolution to the mystery felt like a bit of a damp squib, but I otherwise enjoyed this one well enough.

Description:
Samson's a young man in Kiev in 1919. His father is killed and his ear severed in a random attack by one of the many powers vying for control of his city. As if that wasn't enough, two Red Army soldiers requisition his flat and may be plotting to kill him. The only thing he has on his side is the fact that his severed ear still seems to be able to hear, and can transmit audio to him from wherever it is placed.

Liked:
Short and silly. This has a real sense of place and time, and could be used as a light 'in' to learning more about Kiev in this fraught and complex time in its history. There're lots of elements to the central mystery to keep you puzzling.

Disliked:
Found this quite confusing. Would have loved some brief explanatory footnotes, or for the quick timeline at the end of the book to have been included up front. The character list is fairly large and many folks feel unnecessary/interchangeable. Didn't find myself falling in love with any of the characters, really - the protagonist was vaguely likeable but a bit too lightly sketched to take to fully. I'm not much of a mystery reader/fan so I'm perhaps not the best judge, but key elements felt like they were introduced too late for the resolution (such as it was) to feel very satisfying. Wrapped up very quickly.

Read This If:
You’re a dedicated Kurkov and/or quirky mystery fan.

Anything Else:
I really liked that there’s only one magical/unrealistic element here and it’s quite mundane.

Knowing that this was a historical piece, and knowing this was the first book of a series of thrillers (that covid and principally Putin have carefully delayed), I did wonder if this would be the Kurkov of old. But right away you can see that he is just about the only person to whom this could be attributed. Samson immediately loses his father in one of the many terrifying pell-mell events the citizens of Kyiv are suffering with the constant sway of political and military power swarming across Ukraine in 1919 – nicely evoked by nocturnal excursions, blackouts and so on. He also loses his ear. But from then on, when he finds a potential romantic attachment, and when he finds a new job, he also finds something of benefit – the preserved ear is able to tell his brain what it is still, somehow, managing to pick up.

And that will be of great use in this risk-filled city. Soldiers of this stripe, soldiers of that, police, Bolsheviks, the Cheka – nobody wants to give too much credence to any of the list until it is finally resolved just who is actually in power. And seeing as this was first published in 2020 we don't have to see any of this as a modern parallel, but the quaintly romantic, magical realist and yet perfectly gritty sides of this author's output are certainly all here.

What doesn't work is the title in translation – the cover artists left with nothing to do with it, hence the British edition looking like Jacques Tati meets Antoine Laurain, while the USA editions have a glorifying image of something that doesn't turn up until almost the final third. Some blurb I've seen saying this is from a "Ukrainian Stieg Larsson" is clearly from someone who has read neither author. What this does – or rather the whole series would probably manage to do – is replace in my affections the work of Yulia Yakovleva and her historical Soviet murder mysteries. She can be much more overtly political than this – the copper in her books being leant on to solve the right Soviet cases in very much the right Soviet way – but here too the hero is one we're rooting for as a very small fish in a very turbulent pond.

To me this was very much a Kurkov book – his peculiar aesthetic, his quirk, his voice. It definitely can be seen as more of a genre piece than his usual, but not too much that it would put people off. If you come here thinking this is a new crime writer, unaware of the man's past output, you may be quite cross with the romantic set-up, the surreal detail of the ear, and more. It could be clearer in telling us what we need to know – even the postscript concerning Kyiv history doesn't exactly go into nearly enough detail about the Cheka and so on – but this is for the entertainment as opposed to the education, and to me it certainly delivered. A strong four stars, and roll on the chance for further books in this world.

Once you get used to the streets, monuments, and names of Lviv, this is a strange story that takes place after the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1918.
Since he can write reports, Samson learns that, despite being an electric engineer, he will now work as a police officer.. The story alternates between danger and satire as chaos erupts all around him.
Of course love, a lot of steeling, the two unexplained murders and discovering the tailor who made a suit for a person with short legs makes for a wonderful tale.
An independent review for NetGalley / MacLehose Press

An intriguing book. I wanted to read it quickly as it kept on offering to delivery a crime story but it didn't. But it did deliver a bunch of very different characters, a bit of absurdity and a picture of life during the crazy days in the Ukraine between the various rebellions and civil wars at the end of WWI.
The book starts with a slashing of blood and goes on to show that nothing is what is seems. It ends with the promise of the start of a series featuring this time period and characters. I look forward to reading these.

This is just great. It isn’t for the feint hearted with blood, death, mutilation and cold cold winters however seems to just motor along by itself. The beauty comes from the writing style, the prosaic acceptance of all that life throws starting and ending with a cut off ear in a box. Both times, Samson is saved and made by his ear and the connections it gives him. Blood flows through this book, the senseless cruelty and unreasoning nastiness is described in frank and unemotional terms which makes it all the more powerful. A smattering of sarcasm helps and I had a ball reading this.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley.

I have read some of Andrey Kurkov's works before and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I decided to give this one a read because of that fact and also because I enjoy reading any books about Ukraine. This book certainly delivered - it was very humorous and very, very surreal (in a good way. I love surreal books.) It starts off with a horrific murder which was very unsettling, but does serve a purpose (and propulsive thrust) for the rest of the novel. The main protagonist, Samson, is left bereft and an orphan in 1919 Kyiv, and must find his own way despite many setbacks (eg, the lack of an ear which does actually help him out a lot, the requisitioning of his flat by some pretty devious Red Army deserters etc).

The novel is atmospheric and well-told; it's also very engaging (because of the humour and the surreal magical realism on show throughout.) The cover artwork is very effective - sparse yet eye-catching all the same. This is very good and I'd recommend it.