For the first time in Russian - probably the brightest American debut novel of 2019, the choice of the editors of the New York Times, People and Entertainment Weekly. The Altruists is “a witty tragicomedy about old wounds, new hurts and hard-won wisdom” (Sunday Express), an “incredibly moving story about the cost of good deeds” (The Daily Mail), an “ambitious combination of global perspective and warm human comedy, inevitably inviting comparisons with the books of Jonathan Franzen" (The New York Times Book Review). Arthur Alter has big problems. He could lose his professorship at Saint Louis University and, with it, his ability to pay off his mortgage; a young girlfriend, old enough to be his daughter, is ready to give up on him; and his own children, Ethan and Maggie, refuse to talk to him. But the children, unlike him, have money - a fortune bequeathed directly to them, secretly accumulated by Arthur's deceased wife, Francine. Now Ethan lives as a recluse in a prestigious area of Brooklyn, and Maggie practices forced poverty and tries to devote herself to charity. Hoping to persuade Ethan and Maggie to help him avoid losing his old family home, Arthur invites them to spend spring break in St. Louis - and opens a real Pandora's box...