Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

POOR FOLK was the first published novel of Dostoyevsky. Written as a series of letters between two cousins recently arrived in the city, they live in two horrible apartments where they struggle to pay rent, put food on the table, and maintain their sanity in the grim world of mid-19th century St. Petersburg. The cousins are surrounded by a cast of miserable characters, each struggling with a variety of demons, including poverty, disease, alcoholism, and starvation.