Summer in Baden-Baden (Faber Editions)

Join Dostoevsky on his tumultuous honeymoon in this hypnotic cult classic , introduced by Susan Sontag.

''A wonderful work of art.'' Jon McGregor
''Extraordinary in its confidence and enchantment.'' Chris Power
''Addictive, dreamlike and dazzlingly unique.'' Adam Thirlwell
''Luminous, melancholy and enraptured.'' Chloe Aridjis

Why was I reading this book now, in a railway-carriage, beneath a wavering, flickering, electric light-bulb . .

Summer, 1867: The newlywed Dostoevsky and his young wife Anna - his one-time secretary - are travelling to the German spa resort of Baden-Baden on honeymoon. Their love is ecstatic, yet the author is plagued by demons: haunted by his crimes and punishments, consumed by fevers of jealousy, gambling to avoid mounting debts and shaken by epileptic fits.

Winter, 1970s: Our Jewish narrator embarks on a pilgrimage from Mo