michael raikhlin

"I entered the city like my own ghost, floating, as if invisible, down the familiar streets. I did not own up to my relatives that I was back in town, making it easier for them to be honest while answering police inquires about me." Anyone who has enjoyed The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad will be fascinated by this gripping tale of a citizen of the new post-soviet Russia who loses his identity to take on many identities to survive in a complex life of crime, a life that enables him to adapt to many countries, including Israel, Cypress, the United States and Britain. The devious paths chosen by the protagonist through the moral morass of deceit, fraud, robbery and shady business deals will hold the reader spellbound. In essence the book demonstrates the value of a good name and a tangible, respectable identity in a world that has become an ethical quagmire.