Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
-
-
3.3 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
A journey into the glittering, surreal heart of twenty-first century Russia, where even dictatorship is a reality show
“A gripping and unsettling account.” —Washington Post
Professional killers with the souls of artists, would-be theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, suicidal supermodels, Hell's Angels who hallucinate themselves as holy warriors, and oligarch revolutionaries: welcome to the wild and bizarre heart of twenty-first-century Russia. It is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, home to a form of dictatorship-far subtler than twentieth-century strains-that is rapidly rising to challenge the West.
When British producer Peter Pomerantsev plunges into the booming Russian TV industry, he gains access to every nook and corrupt cranny of the country. He is brought to smoky rooms for meetings with propaganda gurus running the nerve-center of the Russian media machine, and visits Siberian mafia-towns and the salons of the international super-rich in London and the US. As the Putin regime becomes more aggressive, Pomerantsev finds himself drawn further into the system.
Dazzling yet piercingly insightful, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible is an unforgettable voyage into a country spinning from decadence into madness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This debut from television producer Pomerantsev vividly describes the decade, starting in 2001, that he spent in Vladimir Putin's "New Russia" pursuing a film school degree and TV work. Along the way, it reveals the complex truth about 21st-century Russia, with all of its new possibility, wealth, power, and corruption. Born in Kiev but raised in England by exiled Russian parents, Pomerantsev decided to move back to his native country, partly because he felt like he had "always been an observer looking in at Russia" and "wanted to get closer." The book is divided into distinct parts "Reality Show Russia," "Cracks in the Kremlin Matrix," and "Forms of Delirium" suggesting the three-act structure taught in modern screenwriting manuals and emphasizing the feel of "performance" in the new Russia. Highlights of the narrative include Pomerantsev's experiences producing a TV documentary called How to Marry a Millionaire (A Gold Digger's Guide), interviewing gangster-turned-movie star Vitaliy Djomochka, attending a lecture by Kremlin propaganda mastermind Vladislav Surkov, and sampling the excess of Moscow nightlife. Sometimes horrifying but always compelling, this book exposes the bizarre reality hiding beneath the facade of a "youthful, bouncy, glossy country."
