T

Count T loses his memory while fleeing a tsarist agent. He recalls only Optina Pustyn and sets out to find it. A detective and a demon named Ariel pursue him. Ariel tells him he is a character in a commissioned novel. A team of writers controls his fate, with Leo Tolstoy as their model.

Viktor Pelevin’s postmodern novel explores who controls a story. Count T must break free and shape his own life. His quest includes saving Dostoevsky from a ruined, post-apocalyptic Petersburg. Readers must work out who truly writes the tale. This edition comes in paperback.