Viktor Remizov is a writer, winner of the Big Book (2021) and Book of the Year (2021) awards for the novel Permafrost, finalist of the Russian Booker awards (2014), Big Book (2014). The new book includes the story, which gives the title to the entire collection, and short stories. Viktor Remizov’s short prose is inferior to his large novels only in volume. The stories and short stories conceal vast spaces and time is compressed, but not because of emptiness, but because of richness. Each story is a separate world, where the author’s usual attention to nature and human existence in it is inscribed in the plot, and each poses important questions to the reader: about the attitude to life, to what surrounds us, to the present and the future, to , what is truly important and worthy to fill existence. The author writes about loneliness, which honestly immerses a person in himself, and the amazing feeling of freedom that embraces in moments of unity with the world.