History is coming to an end; the old account-books will soon be thrown into the fire; in this dead time between old and new, all things are permitted. He does not believe his answer particularly, does not disbelieve it.

In the fall of 1869, Dostoevsky is summoned from Berlin to St Petersburg by the sudden death of his stepson. Mad with grief, Dostoevsky obsessively unravels Pavel’s life and death, becoming enmeshed in the same demonic conspiracies that claimed the boy. The Master of Petersburg is a daring novel about filial love and hate, authority and rebellion, art and imagination.