Throughout the often-confusing, character-stuffed crime novel The Case of the General’s Thumb, Russian-born Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov subtly and astutely comments on post-Soviet Union life. Originally published in Russian as Igra v otrezanny palets (Игра в отрезанный палец, literally “The game of the severed finger”; Russian does not distinguish fingers from thumbs), the book is out in a first English translation by George Bird. The translation has some inconsistencies — in translation versus transliteration of names, for example. Kurkov’s writing itself is unembellished, but Kurkov has a sharp sense of Slavic mood and culture, sprinkling his novel with accurate and slightly satirical commentary that is not easily recognized unless one is familiar with eastern European culture:
