Crime and Punishment
Words by David Zane Mairowitz
Art by Alain Korkos
Paperback with flaps, 128 pp, £12.99
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is probably the most original murder mystery ever written. It is also one of the first. Set in the oppressive summer of a St Petersburg heatwave, this is the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student who brutally murders a miserly old pawnbroker simply because he can. And so we enter the delirious mind and world of a killer – an intellectual misfit, alienated from his family and friends, cut off from a corrupt society "as if with scissors", and tormented by a "Great Idea" that turns into a cat-and-mouse nightmare with the police.
Boldly and vividly updated by adaptor David Zane Mairowitz and artist Alain Korkos to a modern St Petersburg peopled by the grotesques of the 'Gas-Putin' generation, this upside-down whodunit traces the path of a man above suspicion who ends up informing on himself. But can he find redemption?
When Robert Louis Stevenson finished reading Crime and Punishment, he said the experience was "like having an illness"; then he started writing a new story about a Scottish doctor called Jekyll…
Boldly and vividly updated by adaptor David Zane Mairowitz and artist Alain Korkos to a modern St Petersburg peopled by the grotesques of the 'Gas-Putin' generation, this upside-down whodunit traces the path of a man above suspicion who ends up informing on himself. But can he find redemption?
When Robert Louis Stevenson finished reading Crime and Punishment, he said the experience was "like having an illness"; then he started writing a new story about a Scottish doctor called Jekyll…
David Zane Mairowitz
David Zane Mairowitz is an author, playwright, radio director and translator. As a professional freelance writer for 40 years, he has collaborated on numerous books, including the successful Introducing Kafka (with Robert Crumb), Introducing Camus and Wilhelm Reich for Beginners. His plays for the theatre include a critically acclaimed theatrical version of Kafka's The Trial. His articles have appeared in Harper's, Vogue, Plays and Players, The Village Voice, The Progressive and The Sunday Times. His short stories have appeared in various literary magazines, including Partisan Review, New Directions and the prestigious Penguin Modern Stories. For the past 25 years, he has produced radio dramas and documentaries in over 20 European countries and for the BBC, winning various international radio prizes. He lives and works in France and Berlin.
Alain Korkos
Alain Korkos is a French writer and artist based in Paris. He works for a number of French publishers, both as an author of novels and short stories and as an illustrator for publications aimed at children and teenagers. Over the past 30 years, his prolific work has included the series Lila et Lin, children's novels such as Akouti les-Yeux-clairs and La Maladie Bleue and illustrated albums for adults. He previously worked with David Zane Mairowitz on the graphic novel Introducing Camus, part of the bestselling Introducing series.
Reviews
"An excellent... and atmospheric translation of Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky's famous tale of mental anguish and moral dilemmas."
— The First Post
"Adding televisions and pop-cultural references to the scenery adds a new angle to the piece... a resounding success."
— Grovel