“Gogoliana” and “The Secret History of Creations” are two books under one cover, written by Vladislav Otroshenko in a genre that is phenomenal for Russian literature. This is a fusion of high-quality artistic prose and plot essays - works in which fiction appears as reality, and reliable facts give the impression of phantasmagoria. Critics note not only their genre uniqueness and brilliant linguistic performance, but also their depth, calling them “real intellectual detective stories” unfolding on three levels - artistic, philosophical, philological. It is no coincidence that these texts, when they appeared in Russian periodicals, attracted the attention of “highbrow” literary and cultural journals abroad. The essay-novels included in the books were translated and published in Italy, Israel, the USA, Serbia, France and other countries. At the same time, they were voted by Russian Internet users for the first prize in the national literary competition "Teneta-Rinet" and twice - in 2010 and 2011 - entered the final of the "Chekhov's Gift" award in the "Extraordinary Storyteller" category.