an actual murder committed by the Nechaevists in 1869, as is the scene of the crime – a cellar containing a printing press used by Nechaev. The same murder was the background for Dostoevsky's novel Demons, published in 1871–72. Reception Initial reception to the novel was mixed. Writing in The Independent, Jan Daley described the book as "more admirable than enjoyable" and "without the pulsing immediacy of Coetzee's previous work". Meanwhile, Patrick McGrath, writing for The New York Times, concluded that the novel was "dense and difficult, a novel that frustrates at every turn" and without "any clear narrative resolution". References 1994 novels 20th-century South African novels Novels by J. M. Coetzee Novels set in Russia Secker & Warburg books Works about Fyodor Dostoyevsky Works about nihilism