Penguin Lost, like a typical sequel, is bigger and more action-packed than the original, with more extras, props and locations. It's only the first of many Hollywood devices. Within three brisk pages, Viktor's arctic exile is dispensed with and he's back in Kiev, courtesy of a dying fairy godfather and an unlimited credit card. Misha's guilelessness, contrasted with the corruption of Viktor's employers, lent the book a quiet dignity which Penguin Lost exchanges for picaresque farce. His mute stoicism about being cooped up in a flat, and the relationship he and Viktor were forced to maintain, functioned as metaphors for the weary make-do of Ukrainian society. Misha is absent from most of Penguin Lost, which is a problem because so much of the first book's power resided in him. Penguin Lost is the story of what happened next. In the cliffhanger finale, Viktor's Mafia-sponsored job becomes so hazardous that he reneges on his arrangement to have his ailing pet flown back to the Antarctic and boards the plane in Misha's place. Death and the Penguin introduced us to Viktor Zolotaryov, a mild-mannered, morally compromised citizen of post-Soviet Ukraine, Sonja, a five-year-old orphan whom he informally adopts, Nina, a nanny who becomes his lover, and Misha, his penguin, a refugee from a bankrupt zoo.
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