Vasily Shukshin is a completely special phenomenon for our culture. A film director, actor, screenwriter and writer, Shukshin did a lot to make Russian people aware of themselves and their place in a rapidly changing world. The book about the great creator, written by film expert, publicist, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation Larisa Yagunkova, is very original and realized as a symbiosis of film studies and journalism. The author uses almost all traditional genres of journalism: sketch, report, conversation, essay. Personal acquaintance with Shukshin, moreover, working with him for the magazine “Art of Cinema”, made it possible to fill the pages with deep content and comprehensively reveal the image of Vasily Makarovich Shukshin, who would have turned 90 this year.