In 2002, Isabelle Thérèse Esmein, a Russian language scholar and secretary at the French Embassy in Moscow from 1958 until 1962 died in Fontenay-aux-Roses, a few miles south of Paris on the RER B line. When she died, she took a mystery to her grave concerning one of the most important books of the 20th century.   *** Sitting in his cell in Lefortovo Prison in February of 1974, Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn was greeted by guards who handed him a tie and a suit to change into. Imprisoned because of his anti-Soviet writings, Solzhenitsyn thought that the moment had arrived when he would finally have his chance to voice his political objections directly to Soviet leaders. He had been playing the conversation in his head for years, preparing for the moment when he would shake them from their ideological fanaticism.  Alas, it was only a dream. The guards took the Nobel Laureate to Sheremetyevo airport, “stripped him of his Soviet citizenship, and expelled him to West Germany,” to quote Benjamin Nathans in To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause.   Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1974. Photo credit: Bert Verhoeff/ Anefo/ Wikimedia commons Solzhenitsyn was a gargantuan figure in Russian literature. Despite being a decorated soldier in WWII, he fell afoul of the Soviet government for having criticized Stalin. That criticism cost him years of his life in a Soviet prison camp, an experience that he turned into brilliant literature, such as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), a work that exposed the cruelties of Soviet prison camps and which was based on his experiences there. Despite receiving permission from Soviet authorities to publish the book, ensuing works were not quite so lucky, and he turned to clandestine means. Using smuggling networks to the West, he was able to publish The First Circle, and Cancer Ward in 1968. Books on display at Les Éditers réunis. Photo credit: John Eigenauer Two blocks from the prestigious Collège de France, where esteemed scholars and Nobel Laureates speak, sits an unassuming little specialty bookstore named Les Éditeurs Réunis. The store has few curious visitors; most clients go there with a purpose: to browse the large collection of Russian language books and its array of French language translations of Russian classics. There, you can find translations and original language editions of Solzhenitsyn’s works as well as other once-illicit material.