“Navel” are stories about our deepest desires, which are usually not spoken or written about, and which are not admitted even to ourselves. Vladimir Sorokin called Erofeev’s “Life with an Idiot” “the best Russian story of the 20th century.” However, in his new collection of stories “The Navel,” the writer, without stopping there, goes into the most mysterious depths of the inner world of modern man, extracting from his subcortex the energy of creation and destruction. “A true writer dares to do things that go against the fundamental laws of a complacent society.” These words of the French mystic of modern times, Georges Bataille, refer specifically to Erofeev’s stories.