A Russian novel about poisons of all kinds - physical, moral, political - all rooted in the recent history of Russia's state assassinations and Putin's continuation of the most degraded traditions of his country's history.
PRAISE FOR SERGEI LEBEDEV:
'Not since Alexander Solzhenitsyn has Russia had a writer as obsessed as Sergei Lebedev with that country's history or the traces it has left on the collective consciousness. Rich in textures, colors, sounds, and visual details, wonderfully rendered into English by Antonina W. Bouis ... Lebedev is arguably the best of Russia's younger generation of writers' Orlando Figes, New York Review of Books.
'Enthralling and exquisite, by one of modern Russia's finest writers' Philippe Sands, author of East West Street.
'One of Russia's most interesting young novelists takes on Putin, poison and power in this unique novel; Lebedev provides a fascinating window on modern Russia' Anne Applebaum.
