Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 READ RUSSIA PRIZE Imagine that many of Russia's greatest writers of the twentieth century were entirely unknown in the West, and only recently discovered in Russia itself. Strange as it may seem, it is in fact true, and their rediscovery is setting the literary world alight. Names such as Gaito Gazdanov and Vasily Yanovsky have excited great interest in Russia, and with stories of gambling, drug abuse, love, death, suicide, madness, espionage, glittering high society and the seedy underworld of Europe's capitals, their appeal is extremely broad. Many of these writers' works are only now being published in Russia for the first time, alongside those of leading contemporary authors - and to great critical acclaim. And we aren't just talking about two or three obscure authors; there are, quite literally, dozens of them.