This is a charming book, written by Adam Wye (pseudonym for Anthony McDonald), and I highly recommend it. Oliver is 19 yo and a student at Durham University. He is part of a student group taking a trip over spring break 1986 to the Soviet Union. At the UK airport he meets Dickon, a student from Edinburgh University, who is also in the student group. They initially are roommates, then eventually become lovers. I found it erotic, romantic, educational, and highly entertaining. Mr. Wye gives context, through Oliver's eyes, to the locations visited in Russia as well as to the Soviet system, and I almost felt as if I were there. The attraction between Dickon and Oliver builds gradually to the physical. The sex is tastefully and erotically described by Oliver: the joy, the awkwardness, the ecstasy, the uncertainty, the growing love. One can't help but identify with Oliver. There is an important section of the story where Oliver must stay behind in a Moscow hospital due to sudden severe illness. He meets a young Russian doctor, Dmitri, who is the only person at the hospital who speaks English. A fast and firm, but alas temporary, bond forms between them. Nonetheless, this is a story with a HEA for Ollie and Dick.I love this novel and have read it cover to cover several times, and I have re-read favorite passages numerous times. If you like m/m romance stories, esp. if you have an interest in English universities, the Soviet Union in 1986, erotic sexual encounters, if you have ever been on a student trip to a foreign country (or wish you had had the opportunity), I think you will love this story as much as I do.