Ismail Kadare, Albania's most famous author and a long-time contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, was a student at the renowned Maxim Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow in the late 1950s. During this time, he witnessed the unprecedented smear campaign in all media against Boris Pasternak, who was not allowed to accept the Nobel Prize. Without illusions, Ismail Kadare paints a picture of writers from all parts of the vast Soviet Empire whom he encountered during his studies at the Maxim Gorky Institute. To his profound disappointment, he predominantly meets conformists, ultra-loyal sycophants, frustrated socialists, and corrupt informants. He captures the peculiar atmosphere of anxiety, distrust, and mutual surveillance among the students in scenes that sometimes appear surreal. The claustrophobic atmosphere is further intensified by the outbreak of a.