By Lesia GANZHA, The Day
In all probability, if the popular writer Andriy Kurkov were asked which
country he considers as the most book-loving one, he would answer instantly,
Switzerland.
You can judge by yourself: his novel Death of a Stranger (Picnic
on Ice in German translation), published by the largest Swiss publisher,
Diogenes, has outstripped, in terms of sales, the books of many well-known
European authors and is now approaching the bestsellers' list. 11,200 copies
were sold in the first three weeks alone, while major newspapers in Switzerland,
Germany, Austria, and Luxemburg carried over fifty reviews.
Death of a Stranger is also soon to be published in Spain. "So
I'll have to learn Spanish," complained a wily Andriy Kurkov, who is used
to presenting his books to the foreign reader himself. He also did so at
many personal soirees during the Leipzig Book Fair, where he went to introduce
the Swiss edition of Stranger. Incidentally, Andriy fluently speaks
German, French, English, and Polish. "I can easily recollect Italian,"
he noted modestly.
Andriy thinks his presentation soiree at Bern's main bookstore, JКggi
Loeb, was one of the most important moments of this trip. Some Swiss Cabinet
and Foreign Ministry officials (including diplomats who worked in Ukraine
earlier) came to meet the popular Ukrainian author. I only wish somebody
from the Ukrainian embassy had also come.
In his European Odyssey Kurkov does not forget his Ukrainian admirers:
the ISA publishers are preparing a pocket-book edition of Death of a
Stranger, with the previous 1996 print-run (12,000 copies) having sold
out completely. Andriy has recently returned from France, where he introduced
his play, a fantasy based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's biography, The
Southern Lady and Northern Man, at the theater festival in Nancy.
Andriy also eagerly shared another piece of good news with The Day:
movie director Pavel Lounguine (of Taxi Blues and Lunapark fame),
now living in France, is going to make a film version of Death of a
Stranger.







