Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, author of the novels “The Pianist”, “Lust”, “Mistresses”, is today the most famous writer not only in Austria, but throughout Europe. “Before a Closed Door” - a novel about high school students looking for their place in a society that is finding the first signs of prosperity - in Austria, which has recently parted with Nazism and the Soviet occupation. How to spend the rest of your school years so that you have something to remember in your later life? How to stand out among your classmates and cope with envy of your wealthier peers? What to do when it becomes impossible to breathe in your parents’ house? — Under the pen of E. Jelinek, an inexorable thread unwinds from the everyday boredom of a teenager to the ax in his hands. A film adaptation of the novel was released on Russian television in 2007.