Evgeny Vodolazkin (b. 1964) is a philologist, author of works on ancient Russian literature and... prose writer, author of the novels “Laurel” (Big Book and Yasnaya Polyana awards, shortlist of the National Bestseller and Russian awards Booker") and "Soloviev and Larionov" (shortlist for the "Big Book" Prize and the Andrei Bely Prize). The reaction of philologists to a fellow who has taken up literary creativity is often akin to the reaction of doctors to a sick colleague: he just stood at the operating table and - please - already lying down. And yet, “being an ichthyologist and a fish at the same time” is not only acceptable, but also useful, as the book “House and Island, or the Tool of Language” proves. Short witty sketches from the lives of scientists, memories of people close to the author, essays and sketches - something from Pushkin’s “table-talk” and Yuri Olesha’s notes - remind: the border between a person and a text is not as strong as it may sometimes seem.< /p>