This novel evokes a palpable sense of Moscow: the frustrating corruption in everyday life, the absurdities required to just get by, the despair, the human horrors of the recent past, and the weight of history and ideology upon every place and person.

It is also like a tour of Russian mythological creatures and personages, all of which can be found -- or invoked -- in the ghostly underground.

The plot itself is a bit unpredictable, but that's okay. The book is mainly about the characters, the place and its history, and the fact that perfectly happy endings seem impossible in eternal, tragic Moscow.