This is the first detailed biography of Gaito Gazdanov, one of the brightest prose writers of the younger branch of the White Russian emigration. An Ossetian by birth, born in St. Petersburg and living most of his life in France, he considered himself a Russian writer. Few people know that in addition to his first novel, “An Evening at Claire’s,” which at the end of the 20th century brought him well-deserved fame among domestic readers, he is the author of eight more novels and more than forty short stories, which made him famous as a brilliant stylist and subtle psychologist in Russian diaspora. The events experienced by the emigrants - the Civil War, departure to Constantinople, poverty-stricken life in Paris, literary battles in Montparnasse, the tragedy of the occupation - were highlighted in an unusual way in the fate and work of Gazdanov. Thanks to this, as well as new documentary finds and recent research, the image of Gaito Gazdanov and the fate of his generation are presented against the backdrop of a detailed picture of the era.