The Accidental Oligarch: A Ukrainian Saga

“This is both a literary page turner and an accurate portrayal of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression.,” Fox News\n“a riveting retelling of the heroism of ordinary Ukrainian citizens whose thirst for democracy and freedom refused to be quenched,” USA Today\nUkraine is the "new Berlin," the front line of Russian American confrontation. It's a place of intrigue, corruption, political blackmail and, yes, romance. The Accidental Oligarch reveals how Ukraine's fate is intimately entangled with our own.\nAfter Yuri Yavlinsky is laid off from his job shoveling shit at the Kyiv Zoo, he is promptly arrested for failing to pay a $30 million tax bill. Yuri's ID had been used to create several offshore shell companies to hide the assets of the oligarch who is the principal backer of Ukraine's president. Dora Osatinskaya, the Ukrainian lawyer who heads an anti-corruption organization, persuades Yuri to retrieve the mogul's bank records used for money laundering. But Yuri doesn't stop there. Infuriated by the corruption that is sucking the life out of his country, he uses his wits and street smarts to hijack the companies and their billion dollars in assets. It takes an oligarch to fight an oligarch.\nThe novel climaxes during the 2014 Euromaidan "Revolution of Dignity," where Yuri and his band of savvy saboteurs fight oligarchs, the government, a cabal of mobsters and moguls, and stealth Russian forces, as they strive to save themselves and the battered country they believe in.\n**The author is donating all profits from this book to Internews to help Ukrainian journalists**\n“Hoffman artfully begins with an inventively comic premise and from there constructs a complex and nuanced account of corruption in Ukraine. Raskolnovitch explains it plainly and powerfully: “Ukraine is very dangerous. Many scores to settle. Many gangs. There are powerful crime families. Some control ports, shipping, cars. Some liquor. Some prostitutes. Everyone wants to control politics.” The author deftly ties the briskly paced plot to the real political turbulence in Ukraine and paints an endearing tableau of the romance that blossoms between Yuri and Dora. While the story as a whole has a whiff of the fantastical about it, its ultimate implausibility doesn’t undermine its dramatic energy. For those readers in search of an intelligently conceived portrayal of contemporary Ukraine as well as a gripping tale of political intrigue, this is an enticing option. An entertaining and edifying crime drama."
Kirkus Review