MacLehose Press scoops two novels in Kurkov's Kyiv Mysteries series

MacLehose Press has scooped the first two novels in Andrey Kurkov’s historical crime fiction series Kyiv Mysteries, translated by Boris Dralyuk.

Editor Paul Engles acquired world English language rights from Susanne Bauknecht at Diogenes Verlag and North American rights were sold to Juan Mila at HarperVia. The first book in the series, The Silver Bone, will be published simultaneously in the US and UK on 5th March 2024, with the second, The Stolen Heart, to follow in 2025.

The Silver Bone opens in Kyiv after the Russian Revolution and tells the story of Samson Kolechko, who "stumbles inadvertently into a world of murder and intrigue". According to the publisher, Kurkov was inspired to write the series when he was handed a "treasure trove" of early 20th-century crime enforcement agency archives. 

He said: “This novel was born in a box, a box with original case files of the Bolshevik secret police of the Cheka for the years 1919‒1921 given to me by a reader, the daughter of a KGB officer. I couldn’t resist sitting down to write a novel in which documentary reality is mixed with my own fiction.”

Engles commented: “I could hardly think of a better prospect than historical crime from Andrey. And when the translation arrived, I knew I was right. It’s a fascinating period and the characters and atmosphere are all you could wish for. Of course, as it’s Kurkov, there’s a bit of a twist to it, but it would be criminal to give it away.”

Dralyuk added: “Andrey handed me an inscribed copy of Samson Kolechko’s first adventure almost exactly three years ago, and I began to work on it shortly before the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Submersion in that earlier period of crisis and uncertainty proved cathartic.

"After all, I had as little control now over the fate of Ukraine — which is also my homeland — as Samson had in 1919… It was oddly reassuring to cling to Samson as he did his best to find his way through the fog of war and revolution."