The Collaborators by Michael Idov

Review: The Collaborators by Michael Idov

A sharply intelligent, darkly funny dive into art, ambition, and survival under authoritarianism.

What happens when creativity collides with control? In The Collaborators, Michael Idov dissects the dangerous dance between artists and autocrats with wicked precision and biting wit. Set against the crumbling backdrop of post-Soviet Russia and Latvia, this novel reads like a satirical tragedy—part political farce, part psychological chess game.

At the heart of the story is a cast of cultural operatives—screenwriters, directors, dissidents-turned-insiders—who all, in one way or another, make their compromises. Some bend the truth. Some sell it. Idov, himself a former editor of GQ Russia, knows this terrain well, and it shows. His characters are vividly drawn, often hilariously self-deluded, and always teetering between survival and sellout.

What makes The Collaborators stand out is its refusal to offer easy morality. No one escapes clean. Yet somehow, Idov makes the bleakness exhilarating. The writing sparkles with irony and insight, and there are moments of such brutal clarity they’ll make you wince—and keep reading.

If you liked the cultural critiques of White Noise, the power dynamics of Succession, or the chilling realism of The Lives of Others, this is your next must-read.

Verdict: The Collaborators is a brilliant, layered novel about art, power, and the lies we tell ourselves to survive. Funny, disturbing, and unsettlingly relevant.

The Collaborators