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Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Dark Comedy, Literary Fiction

Book Review:
Andrey Kurkov's ''The Milkman in the Night'' is a wonderfully weird and utterly captivating novel, a joyride through a world that is at once familiar and deeply strange. Fans of his earlier work, like ''Death and the Penguin,'' will feel right at home in this world of dark comedy, absurdist situations, and a cast of characters that seem to have wandered in from a dream. The novel begins with a simple, baffling mystery: Semyon keeps waking up in his living room with blood on his shirt and no memory of the night before. His wife is angry, his life is unraveling, and he has no idea why. His investigation, aided by his friend Volodka, leads him to a mysterious blonde woman, a secret nighttime life, and a web of strange events that he can't begin to understand. But this is just one thread in a larger tapestry. In another part of Kiev, an unemployed dog handler stumbles upon a dangerous discovery. A single mother is providing breast milk to an unusual recipient. A vengeful cat is on the loose, terrorizing the neighborhood. And somehow, all of these threads are connected in ways that are both hilarious and unsettling. Kurkov's prose is spare and deadpan, which makes the absurdity of the situations all the more effective. He writes with a kind of straight-faced humor that is both deeply funny and strangely moving. The world he creates is one of bleakness and warmth, a place where the most ordinary events can take a sudden turn into the surreal. ''The Milkman in the Night'' is a complex, thought-provoking, and wildly entertaining novel. It's a book that will make you laugh, make you think, and leave you marveling at the sheer inventiveness of its author. It's a perfect example of why Kurkov is considered one of the most original voices in contemporary literature. Highly recommended.