I will put my hand up and admit that I bought this book last year on the strength of 2 things. Firstly, I love the cover, it instantly caught my attention amongst the uninspired covers which surrounded it. Secondly, the author is Russian and I have been slowly easing myself into Russian literature and decided that something a little more modern would be a good idea.

There are loads of references to Crime & Punishment in this book and even though I have read it, I don't think someone who hadn't read it would suffer. There were also a few nods to Russian culture in the book but the translator has very kindly added a collection of references in the back which explains what they mean.

Overall I found the book enjoyable but it did tend to become annoying in places. Where the actual story is involved, the writing is fine, the plot interesting and the characters fairly engaging. However, I found the extended discourses between the 2 main characters on the nature of evil and the connection between literature and life very turgid. They really seemed to slow the book to a crawl in places where I would have preferred it to carry on as normal.

There are a lot of characters, some borrowed from Crime & Punishment directly, and it can get a bit confusing as to who is who in the early stages. This is further compounded by the way that Russian names have a formal and an informal form which means every character has 2 names. I expected this so I knew it was coming but someone new to Russian literature may be caught out by this for a while.

This was an ok read but I don't get all the critical acclaim behind it. I guess that it would probably be better appreciated by literature buffs instead of your average reader. ( )