Bought second-hand at Books Books Books

The architect Berthold Lubetkin designed many apartment blocks and other buildings in London after WWII, and is famous for the penguin enclosure at London Zoo. The main protagonist of this book, Berthold Sidebottom, is a middle-aged not very successful actor brought up on a diet of Shakespeare by his mother Lily, who dies at the beginning of the story, thus setting in motion Berthold's attempt to have the flat (he lived with his mother) transferred to his name. Interwoven with his story is that of a neighbour, Violet, who has come to London to start in a new job, but disagrees with ethics of her employer and returns to Nairobi to investigate an affair of corruption. An unusual and appealing set of characters and some funny incidents; the only negative point was the ending that tailed off a bit feebly. Very nice cover that features the apartment building, cherry blossom (there is a cherry grove at the foot of the building), Flossie the parrot and Pidgie, a one-legged pigeon. Though no trace of Monty, the ankle-nipping dog.

One for the meetup, for anyone needing a Ukrainian writer, perhaps...