Pavel Pepperstein's new novel, at first glance, dedicated to describing his own childhood. In fact, this novel is an experience in the study of childhood as a cultural phenomenon. Various types of childhoods and adolescence (English childhood, French, late Soviet, Russian-noble, Scandinavian) one way or another appear in this narrative. Childhood creeps cautiously along the thin line between worlds. Including between the worlds of literary traditions and the space of literary experiment. In the final chapters it turns out that the novel is a test of a new genre, which the author has given the name “euphoric detective story.”