Luke is allergic to sunlight, and even going out into the yard threatens him with immediate death. Julie works as a waitress, proves mathematical theorems in her free time, and is afraid of everything in the world. Charlotte is tormented by lingering feelings of guilt and worthlessness. Lianna appears to be a witch. David has cancer. After a poverty-stricken childhood, Chantelle has been bombarded with incredible amounts of money, and she doesn’t know what to do in this life. For everyone, a trip in a broken-down van through the flooded wilderness from Essex to Wales, where a Chinese medicine man is waiting for Luke, is not just an excursion, but the only way out, a desperate attempt to overcome fears and solve problems that have tormented these people since childhood. “Operation Exit” , a touching and funny novel by Scarlett Thomas, “The Wizard of Oz” about modern British youth, for the first time in Russian.