Let's put the future behind us

by Jack Womack

Former bureaucrat Max Borodin is one of Moscow's most successful businessmen. He strolls through the wreckage of today's Russia with ease - convincing people to do his bidding, providing its citizens (both friends and clients) with the luxury goods they covet, and generally leading a prosperous and satisfying existence. Life in what Max calls "the land of opportunity" isn't perfect, however: His wife, Tanya, nags him; his mistress, Sonya, exhausts him; his brother, Evgeny, constantly needs to be extricated from shady business ventures. And there are always the country's reasonable and unreasonable mafias, who are awaiting their chance to expropriate the profits of Max's Universal Manufacturing Company, which produces documents, historical and otherwise, to suit every purpose. . Then Sonya's husband, Dmitry, offers Max a business opportunity that is too good to pass up. Long used to reshaping history to suit the needs of his customers, or himself, Max discovers that the thinner you stre