Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia

by Peter Pomerantsev

A journey into the glittering, surreal heart of 21st century Russia: into the lives of Hells Angels convinced they are messiahs, professional killers with the souls of artists, bohemian theatre directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, supermodel sects, post-modern dictators and oligarch revolutionaries.

This is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, where life is seen as a whirling, glamorous masquerade where identities can be switched and all values are changeable. It is home to a new form of authoritarianism, far subtler than 20th century strains, and which is rapidly expanding to challenge the global order.

An extraordinary book - one which is as powerful and entertaining as it is troubling - Nothing is True and Everything is Possible offers a wild ride into this political and ethical vacuum.

• ISBN10: 0571308031
• ISBN13: 9780571308033
• Publish Date: 27 January 2015 (first published 11 November 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 June 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 300
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I received a copy of this novel through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/10/23/review-nothing-is-true-and-everything-is-possible/

This book was a real eye-opener. The author’s insight into this particular segment of Russian society was a strange, curious, sad, scary, and different account, where material possessions and monetary stability reign supreme and illusions are key. It’s like the Potemkin villages of the 18th century has persisted and adapted to their contemporary society and consumerism; it’s strange, and their values are very different from ours, and yet it very much feeds into the political structure that they’ve adopted in the post-Soviet world. Models, businessmen, brotherhoods, and cults all grace the pages; it’s a very particular subsect of society–not a lot of working and lower classes enter the story–but they are the people that this author interacted with in his line of work.

I would have appreciated more insight as to why Russian society is so intent on material success and in what ways its Soviet legacy has impacted that mentality, but given the amount of stories and investigations that the author presented in this book, it might have been too much. He does however touch on enough aspects of recent political developements to explain the sort of hyperreality that Russian society operates under, but students of Russian studies may have to supplement the narrative with further information from their own readings. Ultimately, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is a unique read in the first-hand accounts and glimpse into contemporary Russian and Muscovite society.