Chapters from the book “The Counter, or a cookbook for reading” “This old fortress is waiting for all the knights, although it is too old for battle. But she dreams of being taken the way fortresses were once taken. So that there is fear and trembling to your heart's content, and doubts, and criminal thoughts. So that, suppressing the desire to fall, she would be impregnable for a long, long time. Darling, do you hear: there is silence around, no shells or bombs are exploding... You and I live in times when fortresses themselves surrender.”