"Haymarket Square" is a novel in verse inspired by Alfred Doblin's "Berlin Alexanderplatz", re-set in post-Soviet Russia. It concerns the fate of Alex Bobrov: a petty criminal and former pimp who was imprisoned for 'accidentally' murdering one of his prostitutes. Having served out his entire sentence without witnessing the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent radical transformation of society in the fledgling Russian Federation, Alex desperately seeks to find acceptance in this stark new world, so grossly different from his pre-prison days. At first pledging to become a truly 'honest man', Alex's dreams and attempts to acclimate to his new reality are repeatedly shattered when fate keeps biting him in the rear. When love enters the picture it sets the wheels in motion for Alex to pay for his past crimes in a way he had never imagined.
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Haymarket Square
John Kolchak, author