Solitude-12 Odinochestvo-12 Novel, 2005 492 pp Ad Marginem, Moscow  Rights sold to: Germany: Bertelsmann Italy: Piemme Portugal: Bertrand Editora Poland: Literackie Czech Republic: Bonguard Hungary: Gabo Bulgaria: NSM Media Israel: Keter Books

A complete German translation is available
Sample English translation is available

Three print runs in three months from publication
Film option sold
Special promotional edition with a music tie-in on CD

Paco Araya, KGB operative of Spanish origin (his father was a Spanish communist who had immigrated to the Soviet Union), runs a travel agency in Manhattan, where he has been living for over twenty years. Araya has little concern for the current political situation. A “mole” since the age of 20, Paco is financially independent on the Bureau—which is how he refers to the FSB (former KGB)—and carries out operations in his own way, by his own means. The Bureau does not abuse its special operative and calls out Araya only for missions that demand his urgent participation and expertise. Thus, a balance is achieved—the Bureau has an operative for “missions impossible”, while Paco can feel that he is involved in Russia’s national affairs and get an occasional adrenaline rush.

As the three novels unfold, the reader gets to know Araya’s dramatic background, and at the same time witnesses the intricate schemes of covert operations involving international intelligence. Set in different parts of the world, the missions are rendered in such plausible detail that the reader never doubts the author’s first-hand experience.

High-pitched narrative, fine psychological observations, brilliantly captured geographical diversity, and expert knowledge of espionage make for a ground-breaking literary event in Russian spy fiction.
In Paris Weekend, Araya must find a courier agent who failed to arrive at a rendezvous at the appointed time. The missing agent was supposed to be carrying an unknown, but extremely dangerous substance. The Libyan counter-intelligence is apparently involved. It looks as though Araya won’t be having a relaxing weekend in Paris after all. The dangerous mission is put in jeopardy as Paco discovers by accident that a man he has wanted to kill for many years happens to be within arm’s reach.

Sleepless in Afghanistan unfolds over nine nights in January 1999 in Talukan, a town set in the territory of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Araya arrives in Moscow with a request for retirement. Instead, he is sent on an operation with two nearly impossible tasks. The first mission is to find Russian General Tairov, kidnapped with his family by the Chechens, and kept, according to the Bureau’s sources, by the Taliban somewhere in Afghanistan. The bonus mission requires that Araya use the skills of theft. Russia would receive unthinkable benefits from a Saudi prince in exchange for the exclusive “Dragon’s Tear” emerald. The precious stone belongs to Ahmad Shah Massoud, an infamous leader of the Northern Alliance forces, who refuses to sell it. Posing as s a TV journalist with an unsuspecting crew, Paco Araya has only one week to carry out both missions—before the end of Ramadan, the time of armistice between the Taliban and the Mujahideen. No one from the crew speaks the local languages, and the only source of information is a Pakistani officer, a Bureau defector. He was captured by the Mujahideen and is being held prisoner in Talukan.

Araya’s new mission, in the novel Ram-Ram, is set against the breathtaking backdrop of India, where he travels to investigate the strange death of his old friend Roman Liakhov. Liakhov had been the most promising student in their class, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel—only to retire after the collapse of Soviet Union and immigrate with his wife to Israel. Rumors in the Bureau have it that Liakhov was recruited by the Mossad. Araya has had no news of his friend for ages, until he receives a report from the Bureau that Liakhov’s body has been discovered in a shelter in Old Delhi. The mission gets more complicated, as Paco travels in the company of Masha, a Hindi-speaking agent—according to legend, Masha will be Araya’s wife. Yet Masha seems to have no intention of building a friendly relationship with her colleague. The operatives have no information as to the possible motives of Liakhov’s murder or his mission. They have to act as “bait” by following Liakhov’s route and actively calling attention to their own presence. Weird coincidences follow the traveling agents from the start—three young fellow-travelers from Israel turn up at the same hostel in Old Delhi, and the leader of the group, a bright, charming girl, is apparently eager to get to know Paco better. This does not make Paco’s relations with Masha any easier. Soon the agents become a target for real weapons. The pursuers rise to the bait—and Paco is set on a course of finding out who the real hunter is.

Reviews:
«The author is obviously familiar with the routines of espionage, and not just through Ian Fleming’s books. <…> Permeated with numerous flashbacks, rich with cultural allusions, the novels are clearly penned by an intellectual author. [Thanks to Sergei Kostin] we are witnessing a mini-revolution in the Russian espionage thriller, of the sort Boris Akunin set in motion ten years ago in the realm of the detective novel”. Expert magazine.

«[In Sergei Kostin’s novels] one finds not only original  and compelling intrigues, constructed in the spirit of the high-profile standards of creative writing programs, but also well-written dialogues, unconventional language, and fine imagery. <…> These are solidly built and firmly stitched novels, and they deliver a fascinating read. <…> Though the time when we lavishly bestowed odd titles to writers (“Kostin is the Russian Graham Greene”) is gone, we have to acknowledge that Sergei Kostin is very close indeed to Graham Greene». Lev Danilkin for Afisha

«These are powerful, professional, solid novels that change our vision of the genre». Knizhnaia Vitrina

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