Alexei A. Shepelev has a reputation as a radical, marginal writer, author of shocking poetry and prose. In part, it helps the author - he has his own circle of readers and admirers. But it’s mostly harmful: without opening Shepelev’s books, many brush it off: “I don’t like marginalized people.” I dare say the reputation is wrong. He is a true Russian writer of the branch that Gogol gave birth to, and was continued by Dostoevsky, Leonid Andreev, Bulgakov, Mamleev... Shepelev is a kind of avant-garde realist. A rare but very valuable combination.