About this audiobook
Semyon Nevzorov imagines a more impressive future for himself and finds opportunities within the upheaval of Revolution and Civil War. Changing circumstances allow him to adopt new roles, but each apparent success depends on recognising what others wish to believe. His talent for adaptation brings him into a world where identity can become a practical instrument.
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy follows the character with a satirical attention to appetite, fear and self-justification. Nevzorov's private ambitions coexist with public events whose significance he measures largely through their usefulness to him. The gap between his image of himself and the behaviour visible to the reader gives the narrative much of its unsettling humour.
The novel explores opportunism and the cost of treating every relationship as a possible means of advancement. Its movement through unstable social settings invites readers to consider what remains of a person who repeatedly changes appearances while allowing the same desires to direct each new performance.
