In the novel, the plot of which unfolds against the backdrop of Asian baroque, Alexander Ilichevsky implements the theme of radical coherence across metaphysical boundaries - sleep and reality, living and inanimate, life and death. The author proposes the idea of total unity, but does not rely on the Buddhist worldview, but rather on that feeling of “life everywhere,” which at one time made Maurice Blanchot express the idea of death as an excess of vitality. For Ilichevsky, existential loneliness and the authenticity of each individual life in this loneliness are only a special case against the background of a universal and generally harmonious connectedness. Alexander Ilichevsky - laureate of the Yuri Kazakov Prize (2005); three times finalist of the National Literary Award “Big Book” (2006, 2007, 2008); finalist of the Bunin Prize 2006 (silver medal). Winner of the 2007 Russian Booker Prize for the novel Matisse.