The People's Act of Love

The People's Act of Love is a 2005 novel by Scottish writer James Meek. It won the Ondaatje Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1919, during the Russian Civil War, an escaped political prisoner named Samarin stumbles into a remote Siberian town occupied by a stranded unit of Czech soldiers. The town is also home to a religious sect whose members practice self-castration, and Samarin's arrival triggers a murder hunt.

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Stephen King: “Samarin is an escaped Russian political prisoner who turns up in the village of Yazyk during the Russian Revolution, only to discover he’s fallen into a deadly struggle between religious fanatics (the men have all castrated themselves), a lost troop of Czech legionnaires, and an officer descending into homicidal mania.”