Location of the event: Alumni Hall 400 (121 St. Joseph Street, 4th floor), University of Toronto

NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Andrey Kurkov has published 18 novels, 7 children’s books, and more than 30 film scripts. His most recent work is Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, which documents his experience living through the Euromaidan Revolution (also known as the Revolution of Dignity) from November 2013 through April 2014. The book has been translated into German, French, Italian, Estonian, English, Polish, Russian and Japanese. A member of PEN International, Kurkov commands the largest international audience of any author writing in the Russian language. He is also Ukraine’s best-selling author abroad.

Kurkov’s novels satirize life in post-Soviet Ukraine. His biting humour nonetheless reveals a tenderness for the characters he creates. Kurkov often uses surrealism to deal with political and social issues. A famous example is his novel Death of the Penguin (1996, English 2001). An independent thinker and fine essayist, Kurkov is an active participant in the civic life of Ukraine, using his excellent command of English, German, French, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian to represent Ukraine’s artists, reformers and human rights activists at international for a.
Among his recent media engagements in the West, see a BBC feature: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n30gl