Justice’s Darlings

Justice’s Darlings, these are crimes and criminals, real and alleged: Bohdan Stashynsky, for example, a KGB officer and assassin who kills the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera in his exile in Munich, but then flees to the West with an East-German hairdresser he is in love with and turns himself in to the authorities.

In his new work of prose, Yuri Andrukhovych unfolds a panorama of murder, love and betrayal; of the monstrosity of crime and justice that spans across the centuries. And yet, not everything is as it seems…

»The author never takes the straightforward path and keeps confusing the reader at every turn. With wit and folly, with sarcasm and irony he acts out his criminal scenarios. The words shimmer as though they caught in a kaleidoscope.« Lerke von Saalfeld, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Andrukhovych is one author you happily let lead you astray.« Carmen Eller, Die literarische Welt

»Yuri Andrukhovych writes stories that leave you unsure as to whether they stem from a wild life or a dream journey à la Bulgakov.« taz. die tageszeitung

»Every now and again, when the unformatted nonsense, when true pleasure and perversion demand their rights, Yuri Andrukhovych is waiting for us around a corner and deals us this incredible stuff.« Berliner Zeitung

»Yuri Andrukhovych actually manages to turn the horror of Ukrainian history into literature; after Justice's Darlings, there is no more doubt about the fact that he is the most important Ukrainian author.« Erich Klein, FALTER

»The style oscillates between chronicle, deliberative pseudo-academic discussion of historical sources and picturesque story. Yuri Andrukhovych satirises the genre of the historic novel exuberantly, sometimes outrageously.« Alexander Kluy, Der Standard

»The pleasure Yuri Andrukhovych takes in scrambling fact and fiction is contagious. Even in terror he remains relaxed and finds causes for sarcasm.« Roland Gutsch, Nordkurier

»[Andrukhovych] is a mischievous author too, and so we keep reading a good joke even in the midst of the worst storms of steel that turns the suffering upside down and brings the ratchet of pain to a halt. [A] worthwhile read!« Frank Willmann, kulturexpresso.de

»Yuri Andrukhovych is a master of superimposing concrete facts and vivid fictions« Cornelius Hell, ORF