Don't die before you're dead

Former soccer star Lyza, her lover Boat, special investigator Palchikov, poet Antonina Korzinkina, and Yevtushenko himself work to keep Russia's fragile democracy alive in the face of the efforts of hard-line Communists to destroy it. Includes the historical figures of Gorbachev, Shevardnadze, and Yeltsin among the cast of characters.