Bookseller: John Sandoe (Books) Ltd.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love listening to The Book Show on my iPod. Romana Koval is an excellent interviewer who gives each author time to tell his/her story. But what I like most is exposure to authors who have not published in the U.S. Ironically, this is also what I like least. These books are expensive and difficult to locate.

First I discovered Andrey Kurkov, author of Death and the Penguin, which has been published in the U.S. and is available at Amazon.com.

Death and the Penguin is a gripping novel about a man named Victor and his adopted pet penguin Misha. Aspiring author Victor is hired by a post-soviet, mob-owned newspaper to write obituaries for the undead. Eventually, as each obituary nears publication, the subject of each obituary dies. Kurkov takes us on a wild chase of reality amidst absurdity. . . Or is it absurdity amidst reality?. . . Or are they one and the same? As I see it, this is the point of the novel--that with time people will embrace absurdity as normality.

I finished Death and the Penguin in record time, only to learn that Kurkov wrote a sequel, Penguin Lost, and that it is only available in the UK. I searched and searched. Eventually I found a copy through Froogle, bought it, read it, and loved it.

That's when I decided to read all Kurkov's books. I found Case of the General's Thumb without too much trouble. A Matter of Death and Life, however, proved difficult. Several U.S. booksellers carried it, but most charged upwards of $25.

Which brings us to the point of this long-winded message: my wonderful mother and sister, and John Sandoe (Books) Ltd. Immediately upon learning that my mother and sister planned to visit London, England, I scoured the internet for a bookseller within walking distance of their hotel. I found John Sandoe (Books) Ltd. http://www.johnsandoe.com/.


I was after two books: Andrey Kurkov's Novella "A Matter of Death and Life," and Samuel Shimon's "An Iraqi in Paris: An Autobiographical Novel."
Neither is published in the United States. Thanks to my mother, sister, and John Sandoe (Books) Ltd. both now happily reside on my bookshelf.