Maksud Ibragimbekov’s new novel will immediately evoke in the reader’s memory the unique intonation of his so old, but so unforgotten prose - “Who will go to Truskavets”, “For all good things - death”, “Let him stay with us”, “And there was no better than his brother”... After a long absence, he returns to the Russian reader with “chronicles of the transitional period,” placing in this “period” the entire tragic core of the bygone century and the entire life of his hero. School, front, prisoner of war camp, French partisan detachment of commander Claude Vernier, Soviet camp in Taishet, saffron state farm in Azerbaijani Amburan, love, rehabilitation, French passport... The range of feelings - from “Oh, what a city it was!” (about his native Baku) to “It’s easiest to die, but don’t hope for it.” And, of course, everywhere and always, even in every dramatic episode, there is Maksudov’s signature humor, his barely noticeable grin in his mustache.