The latest addition to my website is Alisa Ganieva‘s Offended Sensibilities. Unlike her previous books, set in Dagestan, this is set in a provincial Russian city, which is totally corrupt, presumably a microcosm of Russia as a whole. Nikolai gives a lift to a clearly disturbed man but when he is stuck in a pothole, he finds the man is dead. He dumps the body, as he would be blamed but later sees on TV that the man was Andrei Ivanovich Lyamzin, the regional minister of economic development. Lyamzin’s death sets of a chain of reactions, as we learn everyone is corrupt; Lyamzin, his mistress, his wife, his assistant and the local prosecutor. The authorities push for a “correct” view of Russian history, e.g. it was the brave Soviet soldier that defeated the Germans, not the cold weather. Meanwhile Lyamzin’s death is investigated and various people are suspected and implicated. We even get a brief visit from Putin. However, the basic theme is that Russia is totally corrupt and brutal and that the state exists to favour the rich and powerful.