Nothing Is True and Everything Is Pos..., Peter Pomerantsev
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Pos..., Peter Pomerantsev
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Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible
The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

Author: Peter Pomerantsev

Narrator: John Curless

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 02/17/2026


Synopsis

A journey into the glittering, surreal heart of twenty-first century Russia, where even dictatorship is a reality show

"A gripping and unsettling account." – Washington Post

Professional killers with the souls of artists, would-be theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, suicidal supermodels, Hell's Angels who hallucinate themselves as holy warriors, and oligarch revolutionaries: welcome to the wild and bizarre heart of twenty-first-century Russia. It is a world erupting with new money and new power, changing so fast it breaks all sense of reality, home to a form of dictatorship-far subtler than twentieth-century strains-that is rapidly rising to challenge the West.

When British producer Peter Pomerantsev plunges into the booming Russian TV industry, he gains access to every nook and corrupt cranny of the country. He is brought to smoky rooms for meetings with propaganda gurus running the nerve-center of the Russian media machine, and visits Siberian mafia-towns and the salons of the international super-rich in London and the US. As the Putin regime becomes more aggressive, Pomerantsev finds himself drawn further into the system.

Dazzling yet piercingly insightful, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible is an unforgettable voyage into a country spinning from decadence into madness.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Maciek on September 14, 2015

I recently saw a great Russian film, "Дурак" - Durak, meaning "The fool". The protagonist, Dima, lives together with his wife, son and parents in a single apartment in an ordinary Russian town; although he works as a plumber, he studies architecture in hope of entering university and improving his s......more

Goodreads review by Sleepless on March 08, 2022

I visited Russia exactly one year ago. I liked this book but I'm definitely glad I didn't read it before visiting Russia. In fact, while reading this book, I found myself wondering if Pomerantsev and I visited the same Russia.  When I think about Russia, I think about Vlad and Slava in Saint Petersbu......more

Goodreads review by Maru on October 25, 2022

I felt pleased with myself having spotted that the title of this book is an allusion to Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism but a better reaction is embarrassment at not having noticed earlier: In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would,......more

Goodreads review by Richard on July 12, 2022

In case you aren’t aware, Ezra Klein (the founder of Vox Media) has a great podcast. He tends to interview people who have deeply thought about something in the world of politics and society, but he isn’t going to let them go without a pretty thorough grilling. Anyway, last October (2019) he had the......more

Goodreads review by Kuszma on May 08, 2020

Olvashatjuk önéletrajzi alapokon álló regényként is, amelyben London szülötte visszatér a városba, ahonnan szülei elmenekültek, és megpróbálják megemészteni egymást. Győz a város, London gyermeke feladja, és hazatér. Pomerantsev abban az időszakban érkezett Moszkvába, amikor a "nyugati" szó varázsla......more


Quotes

Shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian First Book Award
Longlisted for the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize
An Amazon.com Best Book of the Month, November 2014


"Captivating...keen observations."—New York Times Book Review

"Sparkling collection of essays."
Wall Street Journal

"This is a gripping and unsettling account of life in grim post-Soviet Russia."—Washington Post

"A scintillating take on a twisted reality."—Prospect Magazine

"A patchwork tapestry that leaves you shaking your head in disbelief."—The Guardian

"Everything you know about Russia is wrong, according to this eye-opening, mind-bending memoir of a TV producer caught between two cultures... the stylish rendering of the Russian culture, which both attracts and appalls the author, will keep the reader captivated."—Kirkus, Starred Review

"Sometimes horrifying but always compelling, this book exposes the bizarre reality hiding beneath the facade of a 'youthful, bouncy, glossy country.'"—Publishers Weekly

"It is hard to think of another work that better describes today's Russia; Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible may very well be the defining book about the Putin era. This might seem like excessive praise for a relatively short, non-academic memoir by a reality-TV producer now living in London, but it is justified by the author's gimlet eye and reportorial skill."—Commentary Magazine

"A brilliant, entertaining, and ultimately tragic book about not only Russia, but the West."—Tablet Magazine