What’s so striking about this ‘novel’ is how it’s both very modern – post-modern, actually – but about a very old subject: religion and morality. When Zossima dies and the body immediately begins to decompose and smell bad, I’m reminded of a touch of magic realism. And how ambiguous is this image, how it can be seen from many points of view.

This is always a very surprising novel, quite unlike what I expected.