Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants: Unbound Firsts 2023 Title

The venue was the canteen block of the Red Hammer Cement Works. It was the usual set-up: way out of town, secretive directions to get there, and disco lights blazing… 

Moscow, 1993. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought unimaginable change to Russia. With this change come new freedoms: freedom to travel abroad and to befriend Westerners, freedom to make money, and even the freedom for an underground gay scene to take root.

Encouraged by the new climate of openness, twenty-one-year-old Kostya ventures out of the closet and resolves to pursue his dreams: to work in the theatre and to find love as his idol Tchaikovsky never could. Those dreams, however, lead to tragedy – not only for Kostya, but for his mother and for the two young men he loves, as all three face up to the ways they have betrayed him.

Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants is both a gripping thriller and a poignant, very human tale of people beset by forces beyond their control, in a world where all the old certainties have crumbled and it’s far from clear what will eventually take their place.

Paul is of mixed heritage and grew up in England. As a boy, he yearned to travel to far-off lands – which is partly what inspired him to do a degree in Russian. After graduating from Birmingham University, he spent four years in the former Soviet Union, where he got his start in journalism. He currently works on the Financial Times, and he lives with his French husband in Brighton. After years of talking about it, Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants – based on his experiences in Russia – is his first novel.