The book includes works written at different times by Mikhail Gigolashvili, the author of the best-selling novel “Tolmach” (St. Petersburg; M.: Limbus Press, 2003). The language of his stories and stories is extremely expressive and flexible. They are distinguished by vigilance of the eye, liveliness of action, sharpness of plots, the ability to depict life not only of today ("Vroterdam", "Naked Prose") or of different times and peoples ("Luke", "King of Thieves"), but also the phantasmagoria of the "subtle" the world of spirits, magicians, sorcerers (“Besiad”), intonations, skillfully placed accents, rich vocabulary, original speech allow one to judge the cultural level, characters and lifestyle of very different, unique characters. The humor, excellent in places (“Morphemics”, “Conspirators”), initially seems cynical, but this impression is superficial: the writer, who has a lot of life experience behind him, loves and pities his heroes. It seems that compassion and humanity are organically inherent in him - the main components of his full-bodied prose.