The Ghost of Alexander Wolf. The Return of Buddha

On a hot day in 1919, a young soldier, saving his life, kills a pursuing rider on a white horse. From this witness-free encounter, only painful memories and an image will remain, haunting the hero throughout his life, until years later, working as a journalist in Paris, he reads a story that vividly recreates the events from the victim's perspective. Thus begins the search for the elusive Alexander Wolf, resulting in the narrator getting caught up in a series of strange meetings and events that make him ponder life, death, fateful coincidences, and the inevitability of destiny. In the novel "The Return of Buddha," readers will find the same Paris of the Russian emigration: the alleys of the city's slums, memories, dizzying fantasies, a poor student, a mysterious homeless man who became a millionaire due to an unexpected inheritance, his young lover, and the only witness to the murder – a golden statuette of Buddha... The autobiographical nature, psychology, and traditions of European existentialism are masterfully woven by Gazdanov with elements of adventure prose, philosophical thriller, and detective story.