“To love is to suffer… But therein lies the greatest humanity.”

Inhumans is not only Dostoevsky’s first novel; it is also a great literary door he opened to the world of the poor, the downtrodden, the ignored. This small novel conveys the extraordinary psychic depth of ordinary people with subtle observation and emotional intensity, giving the first strong indications of the great writer’s future transformation into a literary giant.

Throughout the novel, we witness a story of friendship, love and hope woven through letters between Makar Devushkin, an elderly civil servant, and Varvara Alekseyevna, a young, orphaned woman. Both have small worlds; the rooms they live in, the streets, their dreams and disappointments… But in that small world, hearts beat big, tears are silent but deep.

In this work, Dostoevsky describes how human beings are molded by pain and what a handful of compassion can do; at the same time, he creates one of the most touching representations of the “little man” type in Russian literature. It is an elegy to the human spirit that stands tall even in the face of social injustice, poverty and loneliness.

A book that ends with questions that still resonate today: Can a bond of love be a refuge from the world? Is a heart that fits in letters enough to resist life?

Inhumancıklar is not just a novel; it is a document of humanity woven with the grace of even poverty.