<p><b>"Both a pleasure and a testament to life in Ukraine, before" <i>Sunday Times</i></b><br><b><br>"Ukraine''s greatest living novelist" <i>New European</i></b><br><b><i><br>"</i>A Ukrainian Murakami" <i>Guardian</i></b><br><br><b>A love letter to the beautiful city of Lviv, by the author of <i>Death and the Penguin </i>and <i>Grey Bees.</i></b><br><br>Strange things are afoot in the cosmopolitan city of Lviv, western Ukraine. Seagulls are circling and the air smells salty, though Lviv is a long way from the sea . . .<br><br> A ragtag group gathers round a mysterious grave in Lychakiv Cemetery - among them an ex-KGB officer and an ageing hippy he used to spy on. Before long, Captain Ryabtsev and Alik Olisevych are teaming up to discover the source of the "anomalies".<br><br>Meanwhile, Taras ¿- who makes a living driving kidney-stone patients over cobblestones in his ancient Opel Vectra - is courting Darka, who works nights at a bureau de change despite being allergic to money.<br><br