A riveting true story about growing up in a criminal underworld.

By age six Nicolai Lilin had been given his first knife. By age twelve he had been convicted of attempted murder.

Lilin was a member of the Siberian Urkas—a tight-knit fraternity with strict codes of honour. In this community crime was a given; the only question was whether the criminal was honest or dishonest. Transgressions brought severe retribution. Weapons were treated almost as religious icons.

Extreme, sometimes disturbing, is an insider’s account of a unique and hidden world.