The House on the Embankment: Vadim Glebov grows up in a Stalin-era Moscow dominated by criminals and youth gangs. He does get a chance to further his education, becomes friends with a professor, and falls in love with the professor's daughter. The professor becomes the target of an inquisition. Glebov is called on to testify and doesn't know what he is going to do; he doesn't want to go against the professor, but he has been compromised by the opposing side and knows that he has no future in academia if he doesn't testify.

I barely got through this relatively short book; it was almost unbearably harsh and cynical. The part where Glebov has to decide whether to betray his patron was riveting. It's hard to believe, but true, that the author (who died relatively young) never emigrated from the USSR and got his books published there. ( )