Summary

Part 1, Chapter 1 opens towards the end of the summer in the year 2008. The protagonist/narrator is Andrei Kaplan, who sometimes uses the Americanized name Andrew. He is Jewish. He was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, but his family moved to America when he was six years old. He has a brother, Dima, who is ten years older than him. Dima lives in Moscow. One day, Dima contacts Andrei and says that he (Dima) needs to go to London. Dima asks Andrei to come to Moscow to take care of their grandmother, Seva. Dima does not say why he is leaving the country, but Andrei knows that Dima sometimes becomes involved in business dealings with potentially unscrupulous people. Andrei lives in New York City and recently completed a doctorate in Russian literature. However, he has had no success in acquiring a...