ILLEGAL USE OF NARCOTIC DRUGS, PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES, THEIR ANALOGUES CAUSES HARM TO HEALTH, THEIR ILLEGAL CIRCULATION IS PROHIBITED AND ENTAILS LIABILITY ESTABLISHED BY LAW. For the first time in Russian — the latest work by Booker Prize laureate Julian Barnes, author of such international bestsellers as "England, England," "Flaubert's Parrot," "Love, etc.," "The Sense of an Ending," and many others. This time, "unquestionably the most elegant stylist and the most unpredictable master of all imaginable literary forms" turns to the life of Dmitri Shostakovich, and notably in a jubilee year: in September 2016, the whole world will celebrate the 110th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian composer. However, writing a fictionalized biography worries Barnes least of all; he aims much higher: having as an artist the license for any fantasy, being in love with Russian literature and perfectly mastering the context, he builds his structure on the unstable ground of Soviet history, full of omissions and half-truths…