Death of the Penguin by Andrei Kurkov
This is a translated work of Ukrainian author Kurkov, the story based in post Soviet society. The protagonist, Viktor, a struggling writer acquired a penguin from a state zoo that went bankrupt. Viktor in desperate attempts to write and publish his works was instead offered a job to write obituaries of selected people who were still living. Coincidentally, the subjects of his flourished obituaries would die shortly after his works were accepted by the publisher. Viktor was sucked into the literary aspect of the mafia and slowly got deeper into the dark side of his work. In the process of his little adventure, he inherited the daughter of the man (called Misha, not the penguin) who was killed in the shady business of writing obituaries for living people. The baby sitter for the child became his lover and the odd foursome stayed in the little room, each dreaming of bigger things. When the penguin had a heart transplant with a human heart and his own life was in jeopardy, he swa