When Dostoyevsky was arrested for political reasons at the age of 27, he narrowly escaped his death sentence at the last minute. After ten years in Siberia, he begins his literary comeback and flees abroad to escape from his creditors and gambling debts. Guski follows Dostoyevsky through his political waffling between revolt and reaction and his attempts to survive as a professional writer. According to Thomas Mann, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is “the greatest crime novel of all time.” Yet, his works also shine a relentless yet delicate light into the most secret inner recesses of the human soul. With this combination of virtuoso skill and insight, it can hardly be surprising that his engagement with the modern world made him the “prophet of the 20th century” (Albert Camus). Guski’s biographical study helps unlock Dostoyevsky’s novels and stories whose powerful suspense and deep search for meaning have made them some of the most widely read works of world literature.