The Specter of Alexander Wolf. The Return of Buddha

On a hot day in 1919, a young soldier, saving his life, kills the rider pursuing him on a white horse. From that meeting with no witnesses will remain only a painful memory and the image that will haunt the hero for the rest of his life—until, years later, while working as a journalist in Paris, he reads a story that recreates the events in detail from the viewpoint of the victim. Thus begins the search for the elusive Alexander Wolf, in which the narrator becomes involved in a series of strange encounters and events that make him reflect on life, death, fatal coincidences, and the inevitability of fate.

In the novel "The Return of Buddha," the reader awaits the same Paris of Russian emigration: alleyways of city slums, memories, dizzying fantasies, a poor student, a mysterious homeless man who became a millionaire thanks to an unexpected inheritance, his young lover, and the only witness to a murder—a golden Buddha statuette…

Gaitto Gazdanov skillfully intertwines autobiographical elements, psychological depth, and the traditions of European existentialism with elements of adventure prose, a philosophical thriller, and a detective story. © LLC “AST Publishing House,” 2023