Poet, prose writer, storyteller and cultural critic Linor Goralik continues to search for a “new strange word” in all her books. In the story “Valery,” the ordinariness of modern city life and the fundamental otherness of the protagonist’s view collide. He, both an adult and a child, lives an ordinary life, but sees in it meanings and mechanisms that are no longer noticeable to anyone. Fish in an aquarium, devils in hell, mermaids in the sea, children in physical therapy, a butcher in a shop, God in heaven and a policeman in uniform - all become participants in a single mystery, a common guignol.