Russian Gothic - by Aleksandr Skorobogatov (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Years after the death of their beloved son, there is a knock at the door of Nikolai and Vera's apartment. Introducing himself simply as 'Sergeant Bertrand', the unknown visitor triggers a precipitous journey into the depths of the human soul"--

Book Synopsis

"A great Russian novel...in the grand Russian tradition." --Le Figaro

Russian Gothic, a short and intense novel by Belgium-based Belorussian novelist Aleksandr Skorobogatov that, since its initial publication in Russia in 1991, has gone on to sell over a million copies worldwide and hailed as an early masterpiece of post-Soviet literature, eliciting comparisons to Gogol and Bulgakov. Russian Gothic is a dark tale of the descent into paranoia and violence of Nikolai, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war. When a mysterious figure, Sergeant Bertrand, appears on his doorstep and starts insinuating that Nikolai's wife, Vera, may be having an affair, Nikolai's faith in his wife, the only person to stand by him after his return to civilian life, starts to crumble--with devastating consequences.

Skorobogatov, the author of five critically acclaimed novels, has been published widely in Europe, but Russian Gothic is the first of his works to be translated into English. The UK edition was recently released by Old Street, garnering truly stellar reviews, including in the Telegraph ("thoroughly magnificent") and The Sunday Times ("riveting"). Three decades after it was written, its complex portrait of grief, misogyny, violence--and love--is as fresh, shocking, and relevant as ever.

Review Quotes

"Russian Gothic is a powerfully airless, demented little book whose fever proceeds with unbearable lucidity, both of prose and of mind...a lambent portrait of madness." --The New York Times

"A violent, drunken, hallucinatory window into post-Soviet fiction." --The Telegraph

"While themes of sexual jealousy are as old as Ovid, we rarely see partner abuse in adult fiction, and Skorobogatov's complex psychological portrait linking it to the PTSD of war is riveting." --The Sunday Times

"...there are many things to mark Russian Gothic, the tale of an intense, grief-stricken violent marriage blown apart by jealousy and paranoia, as an exciting prospect." --Big Issue

"Readers won't be able to turn away." --Publishers Weekly starred review

"[A] haunting masterpiece of jealousy and rage." --CrimeReads