The object of many years of attention of the Polish writer Mariusz Wilk is the Russian North. Vilk inhabits the space with words, and the seemingly disparate pages of his prose - notes “hot on the heels”, historical and cultural excursions, interviews and essays form a single flow of cognitive feeling and experiencing thought. The North for Vilk is a “territory of penetration”: here emerge the time and solitude necessary to dive deep - “under the shimmering surface of momentary events”, to see the beauty and connectedness of everyone with everyone. The writer’s new book is dedicated to overcoming the barrier of foreignness. A stranger is just another. These are the Sami, a small northern people, among whom the writer lived for some time in 2005–2006. The Sami labyrinths M. Wilk saw on the Solovetsky Islands prompted him to begin this fascinating journey.