ALEKSANDR SKOROBOGATOV was born in Grodno in what is now Belorussia, and lives in Belgium. He is one of the most original Russian writers of the post-communist era. An heir to Dostoevsky, Gogol, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Pelevin, and Sorokin -- the surreal line of the Russian literary canon -- his novels have been published in Russian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Greek, Serbian and Spanish. He is only the third Russian author to win the prestigious International Literary Award Città di Penne (Italy), for the Italian edition of Russian Gothic. He also received the Best Novel of the Year Award from Yunost (Russia, 1991) and the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano (Italy, 2012) for Russian Gothic. His novel Cocaine (2017) won Belgium's Cutting Edge Award for 'Best Book International'. His latest book, Raccoon, was published to great acclaim by De Geus Publishing (Singel Publishers) in 2020. The Belgian newspaper De Tijd recently called Aleksandr Skorobogatov the best contemporary Russian writer.