Vladimir Berezin is a prose writer, literary critic, and journalist. Author of realistic (“Path and Procession”, “Witness”) and fantastic prose (“The Last Mammoth”), a biography of Viktor Shklovsky in “ZhZL” and a book about the history of the automobile industry of the USSR (“Polyakov”). In the new novel “The Road to Astapovo” » A writer, an Architect, a local historian and a museum director, whose prototypes are easy to decipher, go on a journey like the characters in “Three Men in a Boat and a Dog.” Only the route they choose is iconic - Leo Tolstoy’s last route from Yasnaya Polyana to Astapovo. Repeating it, the heroes talk about Russian culture and history, marvel at abandoned palaces and temples, have fun and are sad.