Samson Kolechko has been assigned a most perplexing case - though it is mostly perplexing because it's hard to understand why selling the meat of one's own pig constitutes a crime.
But apparently it does, and at the insistence of the Chekist secret police officer assigned to "reinforce" the Lybid police station, Samson does his diligent - if diffident - best.
Yet no sooner has he got started than his live-in fiancee Nadezhda is abducted by striking railway workers who object to the census she's carrying out. And when you factor in a mysterious thief in the police station itself, a deadly tram accident that may have been pre-meditated, and the potential reappearance of the culprit in the case of the silver bone, it's no wonder the "meat case" takes a back seat.
But it is in the pursuit of that petty-fogging, seemingly mundane matter that Samson's fate lies - and Nadezhda's too, for the two are inextricably entwined.
Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
Reviews for The Silver Bone - Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
"Andrey Kurkov is often called Ukraine's greatest living writer, and it is a gift for crime fiction fans that he writes in this genre" New York Times
"Wildly enjoyable . . . A glorious aural portrait of a city in dangerous flux . . . I finished The Silver Bone wishing to read more" Guardian



![Manchan, Magan IRISH INTEREST Magan Manchan: Listen to the Land Speak [2022] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/manchan-magan-magan-manchan-listen-to-the-land-speak-2022-hardback-57197364117843_{width}x.jpg?v=1743077146)
![Lynch, Paul IRISH FICTION Paul Lynch: Prophet Song [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/lynch-paul-paul-lynch-prophet-song-2023-paperback-57686922002771_{width}x.jpg?v=1732016939)
![Fallon, Donal & Flanagan, Frank BARGAIN DUBLIN INTEREST James Flanagan: The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park [2023] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/fallon-donal-flanagan-frank-james-flanagan-the-lamplighters-of-the-phoenix-park-2023-hardback-58346832265555_{width}x.jpg?v=1780312547)
![Yarros, Rebecca SCIENCE FICTION FANTASY Rebecca Yarros: Onyx Storm [2025] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/yarros-rebecca-rebecca-yarros-onyx-storm-2025-paperback-1177341848_{width}x.jpg?v=1752166886)
![Norton, Graham FICTION HARDBACK Graham Norton: Frankie [2024] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/norton-graham-graham-norton-frankie-2024-paperback-60131430170963_{width}x.jpg?v=1760095851)