Julien Grac (b. 1910) is a modern French writer, widely known in his homeland. Criticism of the times of stagnation closed his path to the Soviet reader. Now this path is open. The collection includes his two best novels - “The Coast of Sirte” (1951, Prix Goncourt) and “Balcony in the Forest” (1958). Grak’s phenomenon arose at the intersection of two literary movements of the 50s: experimental prose, largely inheriting the tradition of surrealism, and the Balzac tradition. His novels contain the novelty of experimentation and sound psychological analysis derived from the classics. The author reflects on fate, its plans and mysteries, instinctively guesses the mysterious even in the most common phenomena.

The Signoria ruling in Orsenne sends the young aristocrat Aldo as an observer to a distant, remote fortress on the coast of Sirte, beyond which Fargestan is located. The fortress itself is in a neglected state: there seems to be no war in sight, and service here does not seem too burdensome. Aldo languishes with forced idleness, and one day, violating the established rules, he enters a forbidden zone off the coast of Fargestan on a military ship, from which he is subjected to artillery fire shelling. In practice, this should lead to the outbreak of hostilities, and Aldo is summoned to the capital, where he must explain his behavior, and in particular the illegal meeting and negotiations with a representative of Fargestan sent to him. In Orsenna itself there are forces of destruction, dissatisfaction with the stagnant, motionless life of the country is brewing - as if there was no constant danger hanging over her from Fargestan. There are people who are ready to provoke this danger, even knowing that the war will ultimately lead to the death and destruction of Orsenna: better is war than the suffocating atmosphere in which the country lives. Everyone is waiting for this war with a neighboring maritime state as liberation, as an opportunity to wake up from a centuries-old sleep, to use all their abilities and talents, to stop going with the flow. Aldo turns out to be just a tool in the hands of powerful forces alien to him, a “trigger mechanism”, and he most likely, he will become one of the first victims of the flywheel of history that is starting to move...