(Moscow, 1947). Regarded as one of Russia's most outstanding writers, in the days of the Soviet Union he was a member of the Union of Soviet Writers and worked with the Gorky Institute, although he was eventually expelled when he became co-editor of the Metropol review of dissident literature. He presently resides in Moscow and writes for such international publications as International Herald Tribune, New York Review of Books, New Yorker, Die Zeit and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Among his novels are Russian Beauty (1992) and The Good Stalin (2005), and he has also published the collection of essays, Encyclopaedia of the Russian Soul (1999).