Never before have the 1990s and 2000s been described with such authenticity as in Alla Gorbunova's new book. Children, students, beggars, young poets—her heroes and heroines live intense lives, balancing between melancholy and euphoria, holiness and decline, plunging from the fires of family madness into the flames of the risky informal life of St. Petersburg. But Gorbunova's stories are far from mere chronicles: she views a fragile and dangerous reality with uncompromising tenderness, discerning in it experiences that can transform her characters. Alla Gorbunova is a poet, prose writer, and critic, winner of the Debut Prize (2005) and the Andrei Bely Prize (2019).