The new collection of the famous prose writer Evgeny Shklovsky, author of the books “Hostages” (1996), “That Country” (2000), “Fata Morgana” (2004) and others, includes stories of recent years, as well as the novel “Unloved children". The author's restrained, slightly ironic style of narration and his sophisticated psychologism immerse the reader in the familiar and at the same time mysterious world of everyday human existence. According to the critic, “Shklovsky’s world... is full of secret movement; tracking and identifying subtle metamorphoses creeping through reality with cracks is one of his main goals. Something is constantly happening here, proportions change, plans shift, relationships between characters collapse and new ones begin, sometimes unnoticed even by them.”