VANISHING FUTURIST

When 22 year old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess in early 1914, she has no idea of the vast political upheavals ahead. As her intimacy with the charismatic inventor Nikita Slavkin deepens, she is inspired in his belief in a future free of bourgeois clutter and alight with creativity. She and her friends throw themselves into the task of living as genuine Communists. All the while the outside world is encroaching on their little utopia and when Slavkin suddenly disappears, Gerty must steel herself to search for the truth behind the Vanishing Futurist. Inside the commune they abolish private property and hand over everything, even their clothes, to the collective, and they swear celibacy for the cause. A mesmerising story of victimhood and guilt and a carnival ride into political disorder. Faber paperback, 308pp.