The Buddha's Return

Paris, 1930s. A Russian student with limited resources offers generous alms to an enigmatic vagrant he meets on the street. When chance brings them together for the second time, the vagrant has become a millionaire thanks to an unexpected inheritance, and the memory of the young man's gesture leads to a close friendship. However, one day the old man's lifeless body is found, and the student, who has suddenly become the heir and prime suspect, is arrested. His salvation depends on a golden statuette of Buddha that mysteriously disappeared from the crime scene. In this magnificent story with metaphysical overtones, Gazdanov offers us an unforgettable portrait of the Russian diaspora and invites us to explore the devastation of exile and the deceptive nature of appearances. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A millionaire is killed. A golden statuette of a Buddha goes missing. A penniless student, who is afflicted by dream-like fits, is arrested and accused of murder. In typically crisp, unfussy prose, Gazdanov's delicately balanced novel is an irresistibly hypnotic masterpiece from one of Russia's most talented émigré writers. Slipping between the menacing dream world of the student's fevered imagination, and the dark back alleys of the Paris underworld, The Buddha Returns is part detective novel, part philosophical thriller, and part love story.