Shabbat Reading: Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

#whatireadovershabbat Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, translated by Michael R. Katz (1866; Liveright, 2017)

The Russian novel of Russian novels, Crime and Punishment is everything you would expect and more. There’s no mystery as to the culprit of the book’s gruesome opening crime. Why he did it is the real question. As you puzzle out his motive, you will meet a cast of stunningly etched characters, some of the most vivid in world literature. Together, they act out a drama of the soul and psyche, of society and faith, and, yes, of crimes and their various punishments, which will keep you riveted until the very last page.