"Queue" - the first published book by Vladimir Sorokin - was published in 1985 in Paris by the Syntax publishing house. In it, as in the author’s early stories, the features of a future experiment in Russian prose are clearly visible, during which traditional genres, plots and characters will undergo a radical transformation. In a novel consisting entirely of direct speech, the queue is a metaphor for human life in general. Delicately, without bothering with edification - on the contrary, entertaining with the adventures of the heroes - “The Queue” teaches that to achieve a goal almost always requires different efforts than those that we put in, and we never see the goal clearly. It is no coincidence that the endless conversation of people who barely know each other is called a novel: each replica, as in a large prose narrative, adds a touch to the portrait of the era and at the same time hangs in the air, belongs to everyone - and no one. The book contains obscene language