Crime and Punishment

A murderer torn between megalomania and remorse - Dostoevsky's great crime novel

In the sweltering streets of St Petersburg, impoverished former student Rodion Raskolnikov convinces himself that one ruthless act can liberate him-and prove his theory that extraordinary people stand above the law. The murder he commits, however, opens a labyrinth of fear, fever, and moral reckoning. As the relentless investigator Porfiry closes in and the compassionate Sonia offers a different path, Raskolnikov is driven toward confession, punishment, and the hard-won possibility of redemption. Dostoyevsky's masterpiece is a psychological thriller and a profound inquiry into guilt, justice, and the price of pride. Taut, unsettling, and fiercely humane, it captures a city on the edge-and a mind at war with itself. A novel of poverty and power, reason and faith, it still reads with shocking immediacy.