The name Boris Akunin arrived on the Russian literary scene in 1998 with a force little precedented in the post-Soviet history of the country. After publishing more than ten full-length books in the next three years, Akunin was established as one of the most widely read writers in Russia. Critics have attributed his success to the opening of a new territory in contemporary Russian letters; during the first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian writing became polarized between sophisticated prose for highbrow readers and "sex-and-violence" pulp for the mass audience. Largely on his own, Akunin created a middle ground by writing novels widely described as "pulp for the intellectuals." In a country where reading has often been associated with cultural distinction--yet where few have the time and sensibility to tackle demanding texts--the marriage of entertainment and intellectualism received a broad welcome. The success of Akunin's project...