Irina Karpinos’ novel “The Journey of an Amateur” is about the metamorphoses of love and time. The first part of “From the Lair of the Serpent” is a tragic and farcical love story set against the backdrop of the collapse of the Union and post-Soviet reality. The second part of “Solo on Film” is a grotesque story about how movies are made in our time, about the adventurous adventures of the film crew. The third part of “The Tourist” is about the tragicomic situations in the life of the main character of the novel, Sasha Ancharova, who tours with concerts across America. The reader is given the opportunity to reflect, be sad, laugh until and through tears. Tart jazz sarcasm, a fusion of irony and lyricism - this is the style of Irina Karpinos’s prose.