Years after the death of their beloved son, a knock sounds at the door of Nikolai and Vera's apartment. Introducing himself only as 'Sergeant Bertrand', the mysterious visitor triggers a precipitous journey into the depths of the human soul.

Widely acclaimed as a masterpiece of post-Soviet literature, Russian Gothic is now available in English for the first time. Three decades after it was written, its complex portrait of grief, misogyny, violence - and love - is as fresh, shocking and relevant as ever.