First published 2022
In 1865, Fyodor Dostoevsky sits broke and desperate in a Wiesbaden hotel room. He has gambled away his last rubles at the roulette wheel. His wife and brother are dead. His epileptic seizures grow worse. Hotel staff refuse to let him leave until he settles his bill. From this crisis emerges a story that will become Crime and Punishment. Kevin Birmingham traces how Dostoevsky created Raskolnikov, the sweltering streets of St. Petersburg, and the brutal axe murder that drives the novel. The book also follows Pierre François Lacenaire, a charismatic killer who scandalized 1830s Paris. His trial captivated Europe and planted the seed for Dostoevsky's tale. Birmingham shows how nihilistic philosophy spreading through 19th century Russia shaped both men's fates. The author reveals why Crime and Punishment still grips readers today by examining the real people and ideas behind its creation.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Wiesbaden, St. Petersburg, Paris
Period: 1865, 1830s
432 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books Ltd
Content warnings: violence