Demons

Set within a Russian revolutionary cell, *Demons* examines a movement seeking to overthrow the Tsar and take power, while training recruits prepared to die for its cause. The threat of exposure brings the group’s loyalties and willingness to use violence into question. The publisher description notes that Dostoyevsky’s novel was inspired by a real-life political murder; its focus on revolutionary fanaticism and violence gives the political conflict a concrete historical point of reference. The description also identifies a lively, often comic quality alongside the novel’s severe critique of violence used in the service of belief.