Dmitry Garichev has found a uniquely expressive way to describe the lived world of his characters, whose youth spanned the 1990s and 2010s. They exist as if within a multidimensional, morbid fantasy, which, however, proves less cruel than the emerging reality of today's empty time. The book's opening story, 'Boys,' tells of a unique philosophical experiment—a strange 'republic' in a state of perpetual simulated war, behind which, of course, real military action can be discerned. Following the protagonist, musician Nikita, the reader witnesses how a historical-political game, born of the imagination of intellectuals, leads to a brutal denouement. The book also includes a continuation of the storyline, the 'Fairy Tales for Dead Children' cycle, and several standalone stories whose characters are united by a fear of a world they cannot understand. It is embodied in easily recognizable Moscow-area toposes, serving as a purgatory where the choice between dream and reality, good and evil, past and present is almost impossible. Dmitry Garichev is a poet and novelist, winner of the Andrei Bely Prize and the Moskovsky Schet Prize, and author of the book 'Lakinsk Project,' published by NLO.