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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

Adventures in Modern Russia

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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

By: Peter Pomerantsev
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
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About this listen

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 audiobook - 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.

Winner of the £10,000 Ondaatje Prize, described by judge Kate Adie as an ‘exuberant exposure’, with the ‘grotesque pursuit of money conveyed in glittering, trenchant prose’.

©2015 Peter Pomerantsev (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Economic Conditions Economics Politics & Government Russia Russian & Soviet Social Sciences World Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring Authoritarianism Soviet Union

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Critic reviews

""" riveting portrait of the new Russia."" (Tina Brown)""Pomerantsev is one of the most brilliant observers of Putin's Russia ... an electrifying, terrifying book."" (Anne Applebaum)""Unflinching, tragic and profound."" (AD Miller, author of SNOWDROPS)"
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A real fascinating look at a westerners view of Russia, especially the elites and wannabes. The last three chapters in particular help orientate the reader to the international moves Putin makes and why and how.

Fascinating

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The reading was good and the book definitely offered an insight into something that you wouldn't want to get too close to.

quite compelling and pretty bleak!

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A fascinating look into how Russia has essentially used contemporary and western culture to reconstruct the same Soviet system. It's not so much an evolution but adaptation to bolster their former glory.

Peter Pomerantsev is a veteran reporter for Russia, and his tongue and cheek yet informative look into the country is engaging, concerning and at times just plain insane.

The book itself meanders through a variety of topics, mostly based on the writer's experiences of working on various television programmes for state sponsored networks, therefore doesn't strictly stick to the nitty gritty political system. It dabbles in the entertainment world as well as various corruption scandals making it not as heavy listen as expected. Worth the listen.

Clash of cultures within one civilisation

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Captivating book, but narrator mispronounces Russian names and words, and gets stresses wrong. You'd think he would've researched them beforehand.

Captivating book

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The book is well narrated. Russia appears to be an appalling place to live and you cannot help but feel sorry for the ordinary people who live there. I recommend it to everybody.

Great Book

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It is really incredibly stupid of Audible to not hire a narrator who has at least studied Russian, or at the very least someone who is willing to ask Russians how to pronounce Russian words and names, when the text bristles with thousands of Russian people and places and phrases. His ghastly mangling of almost every single Russian word and phrase, even place names, common first names, and the surnames of quite famous people like Bulgakov made it excruciating to listen to. Why didn’t Audible get Pomerantsev himself to narrate it. It would have made far more sense. At times the narrator stressed the wrong word in a sentence and made nonsense of it, at least twice the text repeated where he had done a re-take and the first had not been edited out. Shoddy and very disappointing. A potentially fascinating listen totally let down by the wrong narrator for the task. He pronounced the German plural Krankenhäuser correctly, but by that stage it just felt like it added insult to injury. Do the editors imagine that someone who can pronounce German will just somehow manage Russian too??

Narrator pronounced almost every Russian name and word wrong

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Peter Pomerantsev outlines a perspective on Russia that was right on the creating wave that slammed into the public imagination with the annexation of Crimea and war in Ukraine. He gives an account of the characters which make up the Putin era - desperate models and gangsters-turned-billionaires, dead human rights activists and a London and European elite that has sold its soul to the new Russian money. This is a wake up call that everyone needs to read, but as the story suggests many of those who can make a difference have chosen Russian-financed wilful ignorance.

A chilling and beautifully written account of modern dystopian Russia

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Whoever approved doing voices while reading a non-fiction book should never produce an audiobook again. I cringed every time the narrator spoke in high pitched voice pretending to be a young Russian girl or did his impression of a Russian gangster. Why bother changing your voice when quoting Larry King, when it sounds NOTHING like Larry King? This was a very unnecessary exercise, which made listening to this amazing book really, really hard.

Great book, terrible performance

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Any additional comments?

This is an enjoyable read/listen. Well written and compelling. It provides and interesting and compelling account of sociopolitical issues in modern Russia.

Interesting and educational!

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A brilliant study of the Russian people and their experience through the lives of a handful of fascinating characters. Told with the detail of a documentarian and the occasional flair of a poet. Highly recommend.

Fascinating insight to modern Russia and Russians

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