Longlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize

 From Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist,"a gift for crime fiction fans" (The New York Times) that introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he is tackling his first case, set against real life details of the tumultuous early twentieth century.

“With its earthy prose and stunning attention to detail, this stands apart.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Very intriguing and atmospheric . . . a fascinating read in the light of contemporary events.”—Alexander McCall Smith, Bestselling Author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Kyiv, 1919. World War I has ended in Western Europe, but to the East, six factions continue to vie for control of Ukraine. Amid the political turmoil, young Samson Kolechko is forced to place his engineering career on hold. But in the city of Kyiv everything remains up for grabs and new opportunity lurks around the corner. . .

When two Red Army soldiers commandeer his home, Samson’s life is completely upended. But as Samson juggles his personal life—including a budding romance with the ingenious Nadezhda, a statistician helping run the city’s census—with the soldiers’ intrusion, he winds up overhearing their secret plans. Deciding to report them, Samson instead finds himself unwittingly recruited as an investigator for the city’s new police force. 

His first case involves two murders, a long bone made of pure silver, and a suit of decidedly unusual proportions tailored from fine English cloth. The odds stacked against him, Samson turns to Nadezhda, who proves to be more than his match. Inflected with Kurkov’s signature humor and off-kilter universe, inspired by the archives of Kyiv's secret police, The Silver Bone is a propulsive narrative bursting to life with rich historical detail.

Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk