The Ghost of Alexander Wolf. The Return of Buddha

On a hot day in 1919, a young soldier, saving his life, kills the rider in pursuit of him on a white horse. From this encounter, without witnesses, only a painful memory and an image will remain, haunting the hero for his entire life, until years later, while working as a journalist in Paris, he reads a story that reproduces the events in detail from the victim's perspective. Thus begins the search for the elusive Alexander Wolf, during which the narrator becomes involved in a series of strange meetings and events that make him reflect on life, death, fateful coincidences, and the inevitability of destiny. In the novel 'The Return of Buddha', the reader is awaited by the same Paris of the Russian emigration: the alleys of urban slums, memories, dizzying fantasies, a poor student, a mysterious homeless man who became a millionaire thanks to an unexpected inheritance, his young beloved, and the only witness to the murder – a golden statuette of Buddha… The autobiographical nature, psychological depth, and traditions of European existentialism are masterfully intertwined by Gazdanov with elements of adventure prose, philosophical thriller, and detective fiction.