Olga Pokrovskaya’s second novel, “The Baker and Spring,” is a surprisingly sincere and unexpected book. With touching, sometimes desperate sincerity, the hero shares with us the story of a breakthrough from loneliness into a world of understanding and love. His confession is not selfish - it is full of sympathy for those who, like him, found themselves in a period of mental crisis. A talented musician, having not achieved recognition, goes into business. An artist from God makes a living by doing carpentry work. A caring mother and wife begins to dream of “happiness.” The fabulously beautiful village where the hero who has lost himself flees from the city turns out to be the center of eternal questions. A deep and humane book, written with a smile, invites us to walk through a flowering meadow, look as a friend into a house where the smell of pancakes and the sound of a hundred-year-old piano sound, and, hesitate to join a cordial conversation about the most important thing.