From the As-If-The-Cover-DidnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t-Tip-You-Off-Already department: Death and the Penguin by Andrei Kurkov is the perfect example of why the Melville House International Crime series is like no other: ItÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s political, itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s literary, itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s hilarious, itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s terrifying, and IT DOESNÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™T TAKE PLACE IN SCANDAVIA.¹

To get the word out, for the next four days the ebook version of Death and the Penguin is on sale all over the interwebs for only $3.99.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨

To make this deal even sweeter if you buy it in the next 48 hours weÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll reimburse the complete cost of your purchase with a gift certificate to our website.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ All you have to do is buy the ebook, ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½” and email us your receipt ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”contact@mhpbooks.com.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ WeÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ll reply with a coupon.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¨ ItÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s that simple.

I might be jumping the gun here—currently, the book is stil $14.95 via the Indie Bound website, although the price is updated—but as soon as you can TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS DEAL.

I read this book a number of years ago when it came out from Harvill in the UK and thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re actually going to be featuring the sequel Penguin Lost as part of Read This Next, so you should start preparing now . . .

The idea of giving readers a $3.99 gift certificate is super-awesome as well. And if you look at it will take approximately .03 seconds to find something you want to buy.

Coincidentally, L Magazine released their “Best of Brooklyn” lists today, including one for that includes this award:

Best Small-Press Branding

Melville House
How to trick attractive young people into buying reissues and literature in translation? Collect-ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½˜em-all series of jacket-pocket sized titles with clean covers. Their Art of the Novella and Contemporary Art of the Novella now being imitated by New Directions’ Pearls series, the Dumbo publisher has moved into an International Crime line (shades of Europa Editions and, well, large-house trends) and started the Neversink Library for out-of-print classics (including slim, terse Simenons) not already rediscovered by NYRB Classics.

AGREE.

¹ Yeah, we all make spelling mistakes. Especially when typing in ALL CAPS which, for some reason known only to Bill Gates and that Jobs guy, seems to circumvent most spellchecking programs. LIVING ON THE EDGE.²

² Also interesting is that there are over 465,000 instances of SCANDAVIA on the interwebs. Including sites like where crazy people can ask batshit questions such as “What is the official language of Scandavia?” I LOVE THE WORLD WIDE WEB.