Margarita Khemlin (1960–2015) is a prose writer, author of the novels “Klotsvog”, “Interrogator”, and the cycle of novels and short stories “Living Line”. Finalist of the “Big Book”, “Russian Booker”, “NOS” awards, winner of the special project “Inspector-NOS” for the best post-Soviet detective story. Her stories and novels are called adventures in the depths of the Soviet era. Superb language, masterful plotting, historical allusions and parallels are the hallmarks of her prose. The location is Ukraine, Russia, Israel. The time is the 20th century. The main character of the novel “Extreme”, constantly being in the center of events, is nevertheless always extreme. He is a hostage of circumstances - both during the war and after the war. Fate pulls him into a whirlpool from which it seemed impossible to escape: a Jewish partisan detachment, the “cause of the cosmopolitans” and an unquenchable thirst for love and peace. This is the story of an innocent. A story about a time when happiness is canceled.