The Silver Bone, a smart magical-realistic thriller written by Andrey Kurkov (The Case of the General's Thumb) and translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk, is set in Ukraine after World War I. A father and son on an errand become entangled in a riot between looters and the military. The incident transforms the shy youth into a hardscrabble detective.
Ukraine's government has fallen, and lawlessness has spread throughout the country. During the riot, a marauding Cossack kills Samson Kolechko's father and slices off Samson's right ear. A doctor bandages the wound, but the ear cannot be reattached. The suddenly orphaned boy keeps it and stores it in his father's office.
A pair of soldiers soon arrive at Samson's door with a military proclamation stating all single occupants are required to provide soldiers with housing. They commandeer his father's office as their sleeping quarters. One night, while in another room, Samson can hear via his severed ear his unwanted houseguests plotting to steal riches from the town and escape Kyiv for a nonmilitary life elsewhere. Killing Samson would ensure their clean getaway.
When a distraught Samson rushes to the still-forming police department and files a written complaint, the head constable is impressed by Samson's intellect and offers him a detective position on the spot. The hapless youth accepts and sets about thwarting the criminal activity plaguing his town's survival. Samson's steadfast belief in the truth and his incorruptible sense of right and wrong are laudable, but in this first installment of a new series, the real magic lies in this orphan's ability to survive. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer