The Epicenter: Andrey Kurkov with Olga Zilberbourg

Litquake is honored to present Ukraine's most well-known writer, Andrey Kurkov, and his newest release in English, Diary of an Invasion, a collection of writings and broadcasts from the frontlines of a 21st-century war. Throughout the Russian assault, Kurkov has lived in Kyiv and in the remote countryside, spending the sleepless nights delivering the truth about this atrocity to the world. In the process, he has become an important voice for his people, contributing satirical commentary to international media, raising money for charities, and speaking throughout Europe. His work is frequently compared to Vonnegut, Kafka, and Murakami. He appears here in conversation with Russia-born author Olga Zilberbourg, followed by book sales and signing.


Andrey Kurkov was born near Leningrad in 1961, and worked as a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenwriter before becoming well-known as a novelist. His novel Death and the Penguin, his first in English translation, became an international bestseller, translated into more than 30 languages. As well as writing fiction for adults and children, he has become known as a commentator and journalist on Ukraine for the international media. His work of reportage, Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev, was published in 2014, followed by the novel The Bickford Fuse (MacLehose Press, 2016). His novel Grey Bees, set in eastern Ukraine, appeared in translation in 2022. He lives in Kyiv with his wife and their three children.

Olga Zilberbourg was born in Leningrad and grew up in St. Petersburg. She has published four story collections in Russian, and one in English, Like Water and Other Stories. Her writing has appeared in World Literature Today, The Believer, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and others. She serves as a consulting editor at Narrative Magazine. Together with Yelena Furman, she co-founded Punctured Lines, a blog about literature from the former Soviet Union. She makes her home in San Francisco.

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