A novel set in the frenetic gold rush of post-communist Russia before its
all-too brief taste of raw capitalism collapses in the great economic crash
of 1998. The brilliant but volatile Godunev, a former Moscow kiosk worker,
returns from New York and Miami hoping to make a quick fortune while
the country's assets are still up for grabs. Using his hipster credentials to
infiltrate Moscow's aspirational emerging super-rich "biznismen" scene,
he gets caught up in machinations to privatize the Kremlin, and eventually
finds himself out of his depths in a Russia of oligarchs, gangsters, models
and prostitutes that is hurtling towards its own demise. But amidst
the violence, callousness and audacity of the time, Gudonev also reflects
many of his countrymen's sentiments: the passion of relationships;
the extremities of life; a re-assertion of Russian culture; and a pervasive
love-hate relationship with the US and the West.
