Almost Zero

Seizing on a climate of instability and a ruthless new capitalist economy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yegor Kirillovich has turned the manipulation of truth into a public relations enterprise. A gun-toting member of a literature-obsessed gang, Yegor reprints forbidden books, hires desperate poets as ghost writers for corrupt political figures, birbes critics and journalists, and spins fake news from the real. But Yegor's ambitions, and his conscience are thrown into chaos when his ex-lover is murdered.

Spanning decades of Russian history--From the repressive stagnation of the gerontocracy to the confused restructuring of the market to the global financial crisis of 2007, Almost Zero is at once a satire, a mystery and a confession. Most importantly, the novel gives a glimpse into the mind of one of the world's most insidious politicians, for the author of this fictional work is said to be none other than Vladislav Surkov, aid to Vladimir Putin himself...