Leo Tolstoy’s, posthumously published, The Forged Coupon, is a novella about unforeseen consequences.

Classic Russian literature can be difficult to read as it usually deals with the long, subliminal process of suffering. This novella, however, had a different tone. Despite exploring dark themes, the quick pace of the book, with literally every page featuring a new character, made it a page-turner. The storylines of all the characters are connected with one another (Love actually style). But, due to the immense number of characters (way too many), it is hard to keep track of all the character arcs. I had to look at an online mind map of the characters to make sense of the storylines midway through the book.

The novella is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the impulsive and often thoughtless nature of human behaviour. It explores how we deal with primal emotions like vengeance, rage, and humiliation. The second part focuses on religious redemption which remedies these emotions. A theme of the book (mainly in the first part) that stood out to me was the unhealthy social politics caused by wealth disparity, which is still relevant today. There are multiple examples throughout the book of poor characters facing frustratingly unfair consequences – A poor peasant is wrongfully convicted based on false accusations made by a rich merchant. An innocent watchman is imprisoned on suspicion of theft by his affluent boss. A sage, due to his provocative sermon, is banished by the Tsar. Tolstoy’s treatment of these storylines highlights the vulnerability of the poor and the overbearing dominance of the role of money in society.

The continuous roller-coaster of character arcs in the first part caused the pacing of the second part to feel stunted and abrupt. Granted this might also be because of the overload of religious themes in this part which is par for the course when it comes to Russian classics.

Safe to say, this novella can be a decent gateway into Russian fiction, but if you’re looking for something that’s going to stay with you, this is not it.