Babylon

As a poet, Tartarsky is a failure. As a copywriter for one of Moscow's biggest advertising firms he makes $2,000 in ten minutes - and that's before the cocaine kicks in.

But as Tartarsky speeds through a surreal world of PR mercenaries, back-door deals and Zen Buddhism, he begins to suspect the disturbing truth behind it all - as suggested to him by the disembodied voice of Che Guevara.

Babylon confirms Victor Pelevin's reputation as the funniest and sharpest observer of the chaos and absurdity of post-Soviet Russian life.