Ink, dry brush, and one line of oxidized red. Raskolnikov carries the rest.
The notes live in the margin, not in a popup over the text.
560 pages of ivory paper, sewn spine. It stands up on its own.
Your free digital copy, in the app you already carry. Every edition inside.
A former student decides one murder can be justified if the arithmetic of good adds up. He commits it on page sixty. The remaining five hundred pages are what the arithmetic failed to cover.
A translation hardcover is printed to order at our press — allow 1–2 weeks. Your free digital copy is in the app the moment you order.
The hardcover is printed in the one you pick here — and its free digital copy carries all five editions, so you can switch mid-chapter in the app.
Unlocks with the Roman Reads membership — this recording and every audiobook on the shelf.
On the shelf — ships in 3–5 working days.
The same 1866 opening, three of the five settings. Tap an underlined line — the note that appears is the AI companion doing its job.
No Arabic sample on this page yet — the Original stands in; the full setting is in the app.
On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.
underlined lines are tappable — that’s the product ↑
July ki aik shadeed garm shaam ko aik naujawan jo usne S. gali mein kiraye par le rakha tha, aur aahista aahista, jaise jhijakte hue, K. pul ki taraf chal para.
underlined lines are tappable — that’s the product ↑
One very hot evening at the start of July, a young man and walked slowly, almost unwillingly, toward the K. bridge.
underlined lines are tappable — that’s the product ↑
One price, or one membership. Every hardcover — this book and every other on the shelf — brings its digital edition along, free.
The shelf copy — digital edition included
A member unlock, not a purchase
Translation hardcovers come off the same bench as our one-copy print-on-demand jobs — see how the bindery works.
Your free digital copy reads in the Roman Reads app — chapter one is free there, if this page’s sample was too short.
Petersburg, one murderous July. Rodion Raskolnikov — twenty-three, brilliant, behind on rent — has a theory: certain extraordinary people are permitted to step over the moral line, provided the arithmetic of the greater good works out. An old pawnbroker nobody would miss sits on the other side of that line. The theory survives contact with the axe. Raskolnikov does not.
What follows is not a detective story — you watch the crime happen — but a manhunt conducted inside one skull. A magistrate who interrogates by small talk. A sister about to marry a man everyone despises for money her brother refuses to take. And Sonia, who owns almost nothing and still manages to give things away. Dostoevsky wrote it broke and against deadline, and it reads like it: urgent, overheated, impossible to put down politely.
It is long, Russian, and carries a reputation for difficulty. The names alone have defeated honest readers for a century — which is precisely the kind of line the margin notes exist for.
Sentenced to death at 27 for belonging to a book club.
The execution was theatre — the reprieve had been signed for days. Four years in a Siberian prison camp followed, with one book permitted. He wrote this novel afterward: broke, epileptic, gambling badly, dictating at speed to the stenographer he later married. It is not a tidy book. That is largely the point.
Read his full case file41 readers were handed early copies in exchange for honest notes. No stars were purchased.
Finished in 11 days. I had abandoned this book twice in English. The difference was the notes — Part Three is where I usually stop, and the notes kept explaining why everyone was shouting.
Bought the hardcover for the shelf and ended up reading the whole thing in the app at 1 a.m. The printed copy is better made than my university textbooks, which is a low bar it clears by a lot.
Simplified is honest — it shortens the sentences, not the story. Svidrigailov is still disturbing. One star held back because I wanted the notes to argue with me more, not less.
Parhte hue bhool gayi ke yeh translation hai. The scene where Sonia reads aloud — I put the phone down and sat there for a while. The note under that line knew exactly why.
Delivery took four days. The book has since survived a rickshaw, a hostel, and my roommate borrowing it without asking. The binding held. He is buying his own copy.
If you think in Urdu, start with Roman Urdu — it reads the way you speak. Your free digital copy includes all five, so you can switch mid-chapter when a scene deserves the original. The hardcover is printed in the one edition you choose at the counter.
Short plain-language notes attached to the specific lines readers get stuck on — who this character is, why this sentence matters, what just quietly happened. Written per line, not per chapter. Two of them are running in the sample above; tap an underlined line.
Same language, Latin letters — Urdu written the way you already type it in messages. No script to learn, no dictionary within reach required.
Roman Urdu, Simplified English, Arabic, and Spanish, alongside the English original. Roman Urdu is the house flagship. If your language isn’t in the drawer yet, write to us — the press takes requests.
No — it isn’t sold. Every hardcover on our shelf, this one included, brings its digital edition free. It unlocks in the Roman Reads app (iOS or Android) the moment your order is placed and sits in your library on every device, notes and reading position synced. Chapter one is free in the app if you want a longer sample than this page.
Yes — free, with every hardcover, for every book on the shelf. It unlocks in the app the moment your order is placed, so the reading starts tonight while the press takes its 3–5 days — or its 1–2 weeks, for a translation. One purchase, both copies. That’s the Rs 0 line on your docket.
Because it doesn’t exist until you order it. The Original sits stocked on the shelf and leaves in 3–5 days; a translation hardcover is printed, sewn, and cased to order on the same bench as our print-on-demand jobs, and the press takes 1–2 weeks. Your digital copy is in the app the whole time — the wait is for the object, not the book.
The Original ships from stock anywhere in Pakistan in 3–5 working days. Translations are printed to order and take 1–2 weeks. Cash on delivery either way; shipping is free over Rs 3,000.
There’s no price tag on it — the Roman Reads subscription unlocks this recording and every audiobook on the shelf. The needle holds your place, and you can switch between listening and reading without losing the line.
Seven days, any reason, as long as the hardcover can still be shelved as new. The digital copy it brought stays in your app either way. We would rather you read something else than resent this.
Every one arrives the same way: the hardcover brings its digital edition free, notes in the margins. Browse the whole library.
the same mind, boiled down to 130 pages
three brothers, one question — God, or freedom?
surveillance, rewritten history, room 101
a man on trial for not crying at a funeral
Undecided? Page one is still up there, and chapter one is free in the app.