Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A dark and compelling study of a young intellectual tempted towards crime through severe poverty.
Raskolnikoff, a former student who is morbidly self-obsessed, murders an old lady, who is a money-lender, with a borrowed hatchet in a desperate attempt to free himself of poverty. From the opening pages, Dostoyevsky attaches us unflinchingly to his intense and mysterious anti-hero, creating a web of intimacy and tension. Crime and guilt are the central themes running through the novel and the notions of 'justifiable' murder and worldly retribution are depicted with deft and razor-sharp precision. The novel both haunts and disturbs, yet it is the most accessible and exciting novel in the world.