I loved Andrey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin, and was therefore understandably cautious about finding out there was a sequel to the original. As most know, sequels are often bettered by their originals, so I had severe doubts as to whether Kurkov could live up to my expectations having offered such brilliant entertainment with the first of two related titles.

The last we read, Viktor, owner of the silent penguin Misha, decided to escape from the life of the underworld by taking Misha penguin’s plane seat for Antarctica. Penguin Lost picks up right where Death and the Penguin left us, and we find Viktor now living a rather mundane life in Antarctica freezing his nuts off and feeling more than a little guilty about leaving both Misha the penguin and his adopted-esque daughter, Sonya, alone back in Kiev.

That is until an opportunity arises for Viktor to return home to Kiev with a new identity and money, and offers the opportunity to now find Misha the penguin, and somehow make amends with Sonya as well as Nina, having left them alone back in Kiev without a word about leaving.

With new identity in tow, Viktor finds himself back in the thick of it, writing once more, though not as a journalist as would wish to be, nor this time as a writer of obtuaries for those who have yet to pass away, but as a political writer for a Mafia boss who often talks about snails law; how Viktor, while working for the boss, will be under his protection, but should he decide to escape from the snail’s housing, he may find himself no longer safe.

Add to this, Viktor’s new identity doesn’t come without snags of their own, as he is forced to impersonate the late husband whose identity he has taken by order of the late husbands wife. All the while, Viktor’s true aim now is to find the whereabouts of Misha the penguin, whom he realises there is a love of friendship that should never have been betrayed in the first place. Viktor’s journey will take him around Russia all the way to Checnya into the most dangerous areas where his life and limbs are always under danger, and where the book sometimes takes a rather sinister turn in a country that is itself in dark turmoil.

Kurkov has managed to improve upon the formula for Death and the Penguin offering a book that is twice everything that Death and the Penguin was. Twice as funny, twice as dark, twice as engrossing and more. It’s the seedy characters and the not so seedy ones, their characterisation and mannerisms that impress upon the reader.

Lyosha, for example, has now lost his limbs and lives his life being drunk and living in a wheelchair until Viktor meets up with him once more and sends him on the road to recovery. In all of Viktor’s action, it seems they all lead to that of redemption and forgiveness, for Viktor’s true aim in all of this is the safe return of Misha the Penguin, and guaranteed safety of young Sonya to whom he has been worse than a father in some case, and greater in others, after all she calls him “Uncle Daddy”.

Kurkov writes with a smartness and wit that I haven’t enjoyed very often from other writers. Whereas Holt and Pratchett do obvious Monty Python-esque gags, Kurkov offers equally amusing but must smarter comedy. You won’t laugh until your eyes fall out, but you will laugh, smile and take pleasure in following Viktor’s one man crusade, and often a lonely crusade at that, to get back what belongs to him under any circumstance, even at the cost of his own life.

It does help that you’ve read Death and the Penguin in the first instance, because the book pretty much takes off from Antarctica, and although a little recap is offered, it’s not enough to really engage the reader and will, more than no, simply confuse the reader. In any case, a book like this deserves to be read sequentially, as Death and the Penguin lays the groundwork for what is a brilliantly entertaining and darkly comic sequel.

Verdict: More entertaining than the first, a superbly enjoyable dark comedy