Boris Babkin knows well what he writes about: he knows the Kolyma region firsthand. There is no doubt that the people who fill the works of this author were taken from life itself. These are prospectors who literally earn their living through hard labor, whips - former intelligent people, criminals of various stripes and shades, good and bad police - they all revolve around one all-powerful Kolyma god - gold. It is gold that forces these people to do certain things, its shine is visible in their eyes, watery from the frosty wind, they die in the hundreds in the Kolyma hills, and only a very few get what they have strived for all their lives...