Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev

"A nihilist is a man who does not bow down before any authority."

When the young university graduate Arkady returns home with his friend Bazarov, a self-proclaimed nihilist who rejects all tradition and sentiment, a generational conflict erupts. The older generation's romanticism clashes with the cold, scientific rationalism of the youth, foreshadowing the revolutionary turmoil that would engulf Russia.

Ivan Turgenev's novel is the first modern Russian masterpiece. It perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the 1860s, introducing the concept of nihilism to the world. It is a balanced, compassionate study of the inevitable gap between generations and the pain of progress.