Mikhail Novikov (1957–2000) is an author, known as a literary columnist for the Kommersant newspaper. Graduated from the Ministry of National Economy and Public Administration and the Literary Institute. Died in a car accident. Few people knew, reading Novikov's book notes in the Moscow press, that he writes exquisite, masterfully honed stories. During the writer's lifetime (and for more than ten years after his death) they were not properly read. The ease of his writing is deceptive; in this short prose, it is often not literary quality that matters, but something important for understanding the very system of knowledge of a person who lived almost here and now, almost in this country. This book of selected stories by Mikhail Novikov includes texts published in the author’s collection “School of Loneliness”, magazines “Solo”, “Rural Youth”, etc., the newspaper “Humanitarian Fund”, as well as previously unpublished ones.