“It would be nice to start a book that takes a lifetime to write,” the author wrote in 1960, and in 1996 he realized that this book had already been written, and it had developed into “Empire in Four Dimensions.” Each “dimension” is an independent book, but together they are a chain of twelve links (three texts in each volume). They are connected not only by the author, but by time and place: “First Dimension” is the 1960s, “Second” is the 1970s, “Third” is the 1980s, “Fourth” is the 1990s. The First Dimension is “Apothecary island" is a tribute to the writer's small homeland, Aptekarsky Island in St. Petersburg, it is from here that he counts his first memories, from the first winter of the siege. "Aptekarsky Island" is a cycle of stories of the same name; “Dacha area (Double)” is a complex whole: text and reflection on its writing; the novel “Flying Monks”, the hero of which goes through the entire “epic of the male seasons” - from boy to husband. From “Apothecary Island” to the expanses of the Empire...The texts are provided with the author’s commentary.