Documents Concerning Rubashov the Gambler

Sep 10, 2025 12:33 AM

Author:Carl-Johan Vallgren,Sarah Death

St Petersburg, 1899. Obsessive gambler Rubashov has played every game in town. Now on New Year's Eve, he finds himself on the brink of ruin, and decides to make a bid for the ultimate rush, the biggest gamble ever, to challenge the Devil to a game of poker.

Rubashov loses. His punishment is not to go straight to Hell (Hell is full and has been for years), instead he is condemned to immortality. And so begins a monumental trip through Europe, as Rubashov encounters some of the twentieth century's most notorious characters.

Reviews

A gloriously inventive historical adventure

—— The Times

Sensational... Vallgren has a superb talent for pastiche, and makes witty and convincing cameos of the infamous and the great

—— Financial Times

Hugely entertaining, witty and thoughtful, this is a future cult classic

—— Big Issue

Frame[s] the everyday with an almost medieval fascination with the grotesque and the macabre... proof, in this case, that the devil has all the good stories

—— Metro

There are some nicely observed episodes here... disturbing metaphors that offer brilliant, brief illuminations of his brutal subject matter

—— New Statesman

A fresh and original voice...the book is a portrait of Berlin, a city famed for its richness and strangeness, hauntingly captured by Aridjis

—— Francesca Segal , The Observer

A most unusual debut... An entirely refreshing portrait of young womanhood, it is unselfconscious, uncompromising, wholly authentic

—— Justine Jordan , The Guardian

Exquisite

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

This is a haunting debut with an individual, poetic slant

—— Alastair Mabbot , Herald

It is Paul Auster, only better... This is a whimsical, confident book sustained by offbeat charm and intelligence

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

Aridjis is an insightful observer of post-reunification Berlin... Her lyrical, restrained prose conjures a dream-like atmosphere that borders on magical realism. This haunting debut is a significant and memorable addition to the literature of a troubling city

—— CJ Schuler , Independent

Influenced by magical realism and the cool prose of modernism, first-time author Chloe Aridjis takes the best from each

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

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