In the novel ‘The Surgeon,’ the story of the brilliant plastic surgeon Arkady Khripunov is intertwined with the story of the life of Hassan ibn Sabbah – the prophet and founder of the Nizari Ismaili state of the 11th century, the master of the impregnable Alamut fortress. Khripunov changes human bodies, and therefore destinies. Granting people new faces, he sees before him simply material – cartilage and skin. Ibn Sabbah demands unquestioning obedience from his subjects and personally kills those who displease him. Both feel themselves to be beings of a higher order; human passions do not touch them; the only thing capable of striking these chosen ones of God is earthly beauty...