Alexander Orlow, a Russian oligarch known to everyone as "The General," has begun a new life in Berlin. However, the memories of his involvement in the First Chechen War haunt him. The darkest of these is the memory of the cruelest of nights, after which nothing remained of the young Chechen woman Nura but a great unatoned guilt. The time for reckoning has come. In her new novel, Nino Haratischwili explores the abysses that have opened up among the ruins of the crumbling Soviet Empire. "The Cat and the General" is a gripping, psychologically profound novel of guilt and atonement about the war in the countries and in the minds, about the longing for peace and redemption. Like in a Rubik's Cube, the fates of the characters intertwine around a hidden axis of love and guilt. They are all part of a deadly game.