The Culprits — Robert Hough

A boldly conceived, deeply sympathetic novel about ordinary people who find themselves entangled in distant, brutal acts of terror.

Hank is a Canadian lonely heart working the endless night shift as a computer operator. One day, after he narrowly survives being hit by a subway train, he vows to change his life. But how? Salvation finally beckons to him from the unlikeliest place: the gallery of hopeful women on a website called fromrussiawithlove.com. One look at the sweet, brokenhearted kleptomaniac named Anya and Hank is a goner. Remarkably his little Russian just happens to bear a striking resemblance to Hank's own true, long lost, love.

On Hank's dime, Anya moves to Toronto from St. Petersburg to try to forget her handsome Russian-rock-star-resembling ex-lover. Though she tries desperately to warm to the pink-faced and decent Hank, she falls apart when a ransom letter comes from home telling her that her ex has been kidnapped by Chechen terrorists. Hank unwittingly finds himself funding a terrorist scheme.

Told by one of the most unusual and fascinating narrators in fiction, The Culprits takes us on a mystical, manic ride along the fraying line between good and evil. The result is a heartbreaking story of a group of strangers living worlds apart who find themselves, with the help of a few common culprits, closer than they ever dreamed they could be.