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Death and the Penguin

A BBC Full Cast Dramatisation

Author
Andrey Kurkov
Narrator
Miscellaneous
Length
2 hours 14 minutes
Publisher
BBC Digital; 2024
Catalogue Number
18346
Synopsis

Sit back and enjoy this darkly comic full-cast adaptation of Andrey Kurkov's bestselling novel set in mid-90s Ukraine, plus a bonus interview with the author.

Viktor Alekseyevich Zolotaryov is an aspiring writer in Ukraine, with only his pet king penguin, Misha, for company. After Viktor gets a job writing obituaries for a local newspaper, he soon finds that his articles are being used as a hit list by some unknown organisation. Feeling as lost and unhappy as his penguin, Viktor's life takes a complicated turn when he takes in Sonya, the young daughter of an old friend, and hires Nina to be her nanny. Can Viktor protect everyone and keep himself (and his penguin) alive, or is he destined to become the subject of the paper's latest obituary?