The Silver Bone, Kurko - C

                      This Booker nominated novel is set in Kiev in the aftermath of WWI. The Russian Civil War is raging, spewing death and starvation throughout the city. Samson watches Cossacks kill his father, and then they slice off his ear.  Two Red Army soldiers arrive at his apartment and tell him that they have been billeted there. He realizes that they are stealing  and plotting to desert. Since he has just joined the police department, he arrests them. As he learns the ropes of conducting investigations, he finds a silver femur in a crate in a basement. He believes it is the key to two deaths, and makes inquiries in medical circles. His life is disrupted by 'Await Death' written on his front door. He and a colleague wait in his apartment for the expected attack. They kill two intruders, one a member of the Cheka, and the other is one of the two soldiers who had been living in his flat. He finds the owner of the bone, a deluded tailor who had it made in the belief it would replace his diseased femur. Obviously well received and acclaimed, but not by me.