Yuri Polyakov is a famous Russian writer, a master of modern prose, the author of “timeless bestsellers.” The collection “How the Prodigal Husband Went to Mushrooms...” includes two of his famous novels, “I Planned an Escape...” and “The Mushroom King,” as well as the story “The Return of the Prodigal Husband.” All three things are united by a common, “family” theme. The author, with his characteristic captivating scrupulousness, explores familiar situations when familiar married life falls into the zone of turbulence of new love-passion. What to do? How to save a family? Or maybe, without hesitation, throw yourself headlong into the whirlpool of a new, “initial” life? In each of the three stories, the heroes act differently, because each family is unhappy in its own way. As always, the reader can expect sharp plots, paradoxical judgments, deep psychologism, a subtle sense of humor and sophisticated eroticism. The collection also includes the essay “Triangular Life”, in which the author, having allowed us into his creative laboratory, reveals to us the secrets of the craft, telling the story of creation works included in the book.