Need and enough
One person needs to keep a business afloat; another dreams of a day when they no longer have to count every coin. When does what is necessary begin to feel insufficient?
SEVEN · Book I · A psychological crime novel
GREED
One person is searching for a way to secure his future. Another offers him a chance to earn. Others hope they have finally found a path to a better life. Little by little, their decisions become parts of a system whose consequences none of them can see in full.
Sometimes a trap begins not with a threat, but with an offer you desperately want to accept.
Selected excerpt
Chapter One, § 1.3 · working translation of the pre-final textAfter speaking with Ilya, Noel returns to the routines of home. But the very next day he finds himself explaining a dubious opportunity to somebody else.
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Noel ended the call and went home.
Nina was already waiting in the hallway.
“Did you adopt the renter?”
“He was too old.”
“Pity. I've reheated the soup twice.”
“Now that's what I call a real family.”
She took his jacket and hung it on a hook.
“Your hands are cold. Go wash them.”
He didn't tell her about his conversation with Ilya.
The following day, the former renter called of his own accord. His name was Andrey.
“Got anything?” he asked without saying hello.
“Good morning to you too.”
“Morning. Got a car?”
“Not yet.”
“Then what good are you to me?”
“Fair question.”
“I'm serious. I need work.”
Noel was standing by the car wash, watching an employee sweep a jet of water across the roof of one of the Smarts. He wanted to say, “There's another possibility.” The words felt foreign in his mouth, too much like Ilya.
“Come by in an hour. We need to talk.”
Andrey arrived after fifty minutes. He was about ten years younger than Noel, thin, always slightly unshaven, with the face of a man who felt the world owed him a small but persistently irritating sum. Noel remembered that jacket from the days when Andrey rented one of his Smarts for weeks at a time, paying by the week.
“Where's the car?”
“There isn't a car.”
“Noel, I'm going to kill you.”
“Wait. I need to talk to you.”
They moved away from the wash to the edge of the parking lot, where it was quieter. Noel suddenly realized he didn't know what to do with his hands and shoved them into his pockets.
“There's a chance to make some extra money.”
Andrey looked at him more closely.
“Doing what?”
“It's not a regular job. And it's not entirely aboveboard.”
“Drugs?”
“No.”
“Stolen goods?”
“I've been told no.”
Andrey raised his eyebrows.
“Promising start.”
“That's why I'm telling you exactly where things stand. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.”
“How much?” Andrey asked.
Not “What would I have to do?” Not “Is it legal?” How much.
Noel was almost offended. He hadn't asked about the money first himself. But he'd asked.
He took his hands out of his pockets.
“Not here.”
About the novel
The story, without later plot revelationsNoel is an immigrant trying to keep a small business alive after years of work. His cars are ageing, expenses keep rising, and family life calls for stability, not reassuring speeches. Then comes an offer that at first appears to be a sideline: not entirely transparent, perhaps, but seemingly limited and under control.
At first, Noel thinks of himself as someone who merely introduces people. Then come explanations, meetings, new participants and responsibility for the connections between them. Each next step can be justified by the one before it. Yet the novel does not revolve around one man alone: it follows different people as they understand their own needs, opportunities and risks.
The people organizing and sustaining the dubious operation matter, but so do those responding to promises of profit. Some want to earn money quickly; some hope to recover what they have lost; others long for security or simply trust someone they know. Each kind of hope can make doubt harder to entertain.
On either side of the promise
The motives of participants and victimsOne person searches for another's vulnerability. Another searches for an opportunity. The story begins where those searches meet.
The organizers offer rewards and manage expectations. Others hear different promises in the same words: an income, the recovery of a loss, a way out of a dead end. The novel follows decisions on both sides without equating the responsibility of those who deceive with that of those who believe them.
Points of tension
What moves the charactersTrust and the convenient truth
An awkward admission can inspire more confidence than a flawless story. A character chooses which warnings to interpret as proof of sincerity.
The limits of involvement
“I can walk away” sounds convincing until a decision creates obligations towards other people.
The urge to recover a loss
Losing something may prompt one more step rather than a retreat, especially when the next risk seems a way to repair the previous mistake.
Family and self-justification
Concern for loved ones can be genuine and still become an explanation for actions a person would rather keep from them.
Responsibility and blame
Where does another person's choice end and one's own participation begin? Understanding someone's motives does not erase responsibility for their actions.
GREED within the SEVEN cycle
One independent story, a shared questionGREED is the first novel in a literary cycle about human vulnerabilities. Here, SEVEN's underlying question takes the form of a crime story: how do people's decisions change over time when hope, money and trust become entangled?
The other novels in the cycle and its separate research programme pursue the larger subject from different angles.
For readers and publishers
A psychological crime novelGREED is for readers drawn to tense stories about trust, choice and gradual self-deception. Its manuscript is being developed in Russian; editorial and publishing discussions are welcome, including the possibility of translation.
Book status
Work on the manuscript continues- ManuscriptThe original Russian text is at the pre-final editorial stage; the novel is not complete.
- ExcerptTranslated in full from the passage used on the Russian GREED page: Chapter 1, § 1.3. Neither the source text nor this translation is final.
- CycleBook One of SEVEN, a cycle of independent stories about human vulnerabilities.
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