Mikhail Butov is a prose writer, a famous cultural organizer, compiler of the “Anthology of Jazz Poetry”, host of the radio program “Jazz Lexicon” (1997–2006). His novel “Freedom” - “Booker Prize” (1999) - was unanimously recognized as the landmark prose of the emerging century. The new book “Beyond the Skin”, in a sense, continues the theme outlined in the novel: about fate and freedom of choice in critical years. Acute life situations stated in stories and tales constantly force the heroes to doubt, think about what “lies on the other side of the skin”, answer “childish” questions...