Andrey Kurkov is the only author from the CIS whose works are listed in the top ten of European bestsellers. The trilogy “The Geography of a Single Shot” is written in a style that is unique to him—subtly combining an unexpected intrigue, documentary reality, and absurd fantasy.
The novel’s heroes exist in a certain Soviet virtual reality that strongly resembles our own life and is filled with incredible adventures.
1. The Tale of the True Folk Controller — the first book of A. Kurkov’s fantastic trilogy “The Geography of a Single Shot.” In the coherent world of the novel, many vivid historical and anti-historical heroes coexist. Much in the novel—filled with adventures, black and bright humor, fantasy, and riddles—will seem painfully familiar to the reader, and even laughable.
2. The Fate of the Parrot — the second book of A. Kurkov’s fantastic trilogy “The Geography of a Single Shot.” On its pages, familiar characters live, heroically fight, and overcome the hardships of wartime—folk controller Dobrynin, an angel, the German “urkas”—Vaplahov—and the parrot-reciter Kuzma. A bullet still flies around the fantastic Soviet country and can’t find the hero or the righteous man whose death would end all wars on Earth.
3. The Bullet Found Its Hero — the concluding novel of A. Kurkov’s fantastic trilogy “The Geography of a Single Shot.” The heroes survived a terrible, bloody war and are ready to give all their strength to rebuild their Motherland from ruins. Everything is wonderful and stable in the new postwar world—only the bullet still flies above it. That’s its fate: only by killing the hero will it find peace. And although the country is full of heroes, they are killed by other bullets—yours, theirs, strangers—and those who remain alive—the Kremlin Dreamer Ekva-Pyris, the resident of the outskirts of the Kremlin, Banov, soldier Vasya—are not suited for the role of heroes. So an angel and a bullet are looking for the one who will put an end to their suffering: the bullet—to kill the hero and stay inside him; and the angel—to, after death, take him with her to Heaven. But where can he be found? And how can he be found before the bullet finds him?