“The Tatar Desert” is a masterpiece of parable prose that had a significant influence on subsequent modernist literature, a unique life of a young officer who spent his entire life at a distant outpost on the edge of the desert, awaiting the attack of the mysterious barbarian hordes, according to vague rumors, living on that her side. The story of a life wasted waiting for action, in the hope and fear that “something will happen.” The whimsical and elegant “The Riddle of the Old Forest,” with its light and sad intonation at first glance, belongs to the genre of a literary fairy tale for adults, however Behind the simple imitation of a folk legend in terms of plot, there is a deep parable about the destructiveness of the confrontation between man and nature.