Before you is a book, without which the entire culture of postmodernism in Europe is unthinkable - in literature, in cinema, in the theater. What is this – a brilliant avant-garde novel, stylized as the philosophy of surrealism, or a brilliant philosophical essay, stylized as a surrealist novel? Perhaps now it doesn’t matter. One thing is important - years and decades pass, and there is still no end to the exquisite, painful and esoteric “bead game”. For such is the game that the best of men play... The edition also includes the allegorical story “Journey to the Land of the East.”