Muerte Con Pingüino / Death and the Penguin

Victor is depressed: his lover has dumped him, his short stories are too short, and the light has gone off in his dingy apartment.

His only companion is Misha, the penguin he rescued from Kiev's Zoo, when they couldn't feed the animals anymore. Misha is the silent witness to Victor's despair and joins in on his celebration--fish and vodka--when his luck seems to turn and is commissioned to write obituaries. The weird thing is, the editor wants him to select subjects who are still alive, the movers and the shakers of the new, post-Communist society.