First published 2015
Twenty-year-old Arkadi Makarovich Dolgoruki carries the burden of his birth. The illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman and a former serf, he grew up in Moscow without love, raised by foreign guardians who showed him little affection. Now Arkadi nurses a singular obsession: he will become wealthy beyond measure, a Russian Rothschild who answers to no one. Money alone, he believes, can purchase the freedom and independence that his shameful origins have denied him. But his pursuit of riches draws him into a world where pride and humiliation walk hand in hand, where moral boundaries blur and dissolve. Arkadi encounters a sprawling cast of characters, each wrestling with their own extremes of sacrifice and ruthlessness, hesitation and conviction. As his schemes unfold, the young man discovers that the path to independence may demand more than he ever imagined paying.
Genres: fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: anti-hero, moral-ambiguity, pursuit-of-power
Setting: Moscow, Russia
Period: 19th Century
316 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform