Written with a sardonic humour reminiscent of Ilf and Petrov's 12 Chairs, but set in Kyiv during the civil war instead of the NEP. The background and introduction of the lead character are interesting, but the wave towards magical realism doesn't quite gel with the rest. It is obviously all the setup for a series, and the actual plot feels a bit tokenistic to me. I'm interested enough to read the next one and see how it goes.