The new book by the famous Siberian prose writer Vladimir Maksimov includes novels and short stories from different years, which touch on many pressing topics of our lives. These include philosophical reflections on the essence of man and his purpose in the world, childhood memories, and dreams of the future. In the book, as real characters, there are both Baikal and the Pacific Ocean, the expanses of which the hero of the story “This is Hiroo” plows, and a small provincial town in the Siberian outback, where the heroes of the story “In a Provincial Town” live and act. And of course, the main reflections of the book’s characters are an attempt to answer the main question in the life of any person: not “How to live?”, but “Why live?” Why were we given our living and immortal soul?..