Foma Gordyeff, The Man Who Was Afraid

Classic novel. According to Wikipedia: "Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov ( 1868 - 1936), better known as Maxim Gorky, was a Soviet/Russian author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. From 1906 to 1913 and from 1921 to 1929 he lived abroad, mostly in Capri, Italy; after his return to the Soviet Union he accepted the cultural policies of the time, although he was not permitted to leave the country."