Andrey Kurkov is a writer, journalist, and the current president of PEN Ukraine. He was born in St Petersburg in 1961. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked for some time as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warder in Odessa, then became a writer of screenplays and author of critically acclaimed and popular novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin. Kurkov has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the world's media, notably in the U.K., France, Germany, and the United States.

"Kurkov is a master story teller, using a simple lean style for a narrative that reads like a fable or myth, rich in invention, brought to life by the deadpan depiction of local people and local events" The Bay, Swansea "Kurkov masters the details superbly, writes with constant consummate wit and souffle lightness" -- Tom Adair Scotsman "Some see him as a latter day Bulgakov; to others he's a Urkanian Murakami... With a characteristic mix of realism and fantasy it [The Gardener from Ochakov] will delight fans... Kurkov combines the mundane details of life in modern Ukraine (minibus taxis, tins of sprats and bottles of moonshine) with surreal elements from thrillers and sci-fi: knife wielding gangsters, or quantum leaps in the midnight suburbs. The plot rattles along like a Kiev commuter train, regularly stopping for vodka, salami and salted cucumbers..." -- Phoebe Taplin Guardian "Quickly becomes an absorbing rollercoaster, an understated fantasy with an unlikely but likeable hero" -- Matthew Dennison The Times "More than a clash of ages... It's also a tale about fathers and sons and what they need from each other" -- Lesley McDowell Glasgow Sunday Herald

Andrey Kurkov is a writer, journalist, and the current president of PEN Ukraine. He was born in St Petersburg in 1961. Having graduated from the Kiev Foreign Languages Institute, he worked for some time as a journalist, did his military service as a prison warder in Odessa, then became a writer of screenplays and author of critically acclaimed and popular novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin. Kurkov has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the world's media, notably in the U.K., France, Germany, and the United States.

"Kurkov is a master story teller, using a simple lean style for a narrative that reads like a fable or myth, rich in invention, brought to life by the deadpan depiction of local people and local events" The Bay, Swansea "Kurkov masters the details superbly, writes with constant consummate wit and souffle lightness" -- Tom Adair Scotsman "Some see him as a latter day Bulgakov; to others he's a Urkanian Murakami... With a characteristic mix of realism and fantasy it [The Gardener from Ochakov] will delight fans... Kurkov combines the mundane details of life in modern Ukraine (minibus taxis, tins of sprats and bottles of moonshine) with surreal elements from thrillers and sci-fi: knife wielding gangsters, or quantum leaps in the midnight suburbs. The plot rattles along like a Kiev commuter train, regularly stopping for vodka, salami and salted cucumbers..." -- Phoebe Taplin Guardian "Quickly becomes an absorbing rollercoaster, an understated fantasy with an unlikely but likeable hero" -- Matthew Dennison The Times "More than a clash of ages... It's also a tale about fathers and sons and what they need from each other" -- Lesley McDowell Glasgow Sunday Herald