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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Andrey Kurkov

Andrey Kurkov: ‘At 17, I got my hands on an illegal copy of The Gulag Archipelago’

Andrey Kurkov.
Andrey Kurkov. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

My earliest reading memory
My grandmother’s medical encyclopedias. She was a military surgeon during the second world war and then a doctor for children with tuberculosis. I spent five years of my childhood in her house. I really only looked at the pictures of tumours and wounds, but my curiosity forced me to decode the annotations, which were, as you can imagine, not designed for an emergent reader.

My favourite book growing up
Martin Eden by Jack London. The main character’s dream of becoming a writer – his tremendously strong will – was probably what captivated me most.

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