Sasha Sokolov is one of the premier writers of the late--and post--Soviet period. His body of works is quite small but of outstanding quality, as recognized early in Sokolov's career by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov. Sokolov's postmodernist novels explore the themes of identity, history, and stagnation.

Aleksandr Vsevolodovich Sokolov was born on 16 November 1943 in Ottawa, Canada, where his father, Major Vsevolod Sokolov, had been transferred for work in the Commercial Counselor's section of the Soviet embassy. The Sokolovs returned to Moscow in 1946. As part of the government elite, Sokolov's father was able to provide his family with a comfortable life in Russia. D. Barton Johnson writes in "Sasha Sokolov: A Literary Biography" (Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 1997) that Sokolov was a "dreamy schoolboy," and at one time his parents considered placing him in a special school. Instead, he was extensively tutored as a boy. From about the age of twelve he...