The combination of realism, fascinating authenticity and psychological depth, with elements of fantasy allows the author to bring the text to the level where the reader, believing that he has only letters before his eyes, is shocked to discover that he has been looking in the mirror for a long time. Andrey's new novel Volos again proves that (in the words of critic M. Remizova) “the traditional Russian hero is a hostage of history... Volos follows this path, allowing - and forcing - to see what you cannot see in reports and cannot be read in newspaper lines.”