Roman thought he'd found the perfect opportunity to rebel. He may have been wrong.

He awakens strapped to a set of parallel bars in a richly appointed sitting room, and begins a conversation with a masked man which will change his life. His world has been a facade - one which the mysterious Brahma is about to tear away.

A stunning novel about the real world, and about the hidden channels of power behind the scenes, EMPIRE V is a post-modern satirical novel exploring the cults and corruption of politics, banking and power. And not only are these cults difficult to join - it turns out they may be impossible to leave . . .

Born in 1962 in Moscow, Victor Pelevin has swiftly been recognised as the leading Russian novelist of the new generation. He studied at Moscow's Gorky Institute of Literature, and is one of the few novelists today who writes seriously about what is happening in contemporary Russia.
His work has been translated into fifteen languages and his novels OMON RA, THE LIFE OF INSECTS, THE CLAY MACHINE-GUN and BABYLON, and two collections of short stories have been published in English to great acclaim.