Of course, these ten stories by Andrei Gelasimov are about love. About the love of a man and a woman. About modern love. About eternal love. Of course, these ten stories by Andrei Gelasimov are not only about love: about guilt, about betrayal, about pity, about memory, about fear, about resurrection. Of course, these ten stories by Gelasimov are performed brilliantly: each of them is a chord. Here in “Philomela” the lower sound is an ancient Greek myth, the middle one is its modern Greek arrangement, the upper one is an involuntary Russian interpretation. And the book sounds like an orchestral concert suite.