In his previous novel ('Red Cross,' 2017), Sasha Filipenko made extensive use of real historical documents. In his new work, the depicted reality itself claims to be a document of the era. For the most skeptical: nothing here is fictional. There's a town where the mainstay is a prison. There's an orphanage, in whose inhabitants' lives a glimmer of happiness. The situations, characters, dialogue, and even methods of police torture—all are taken from real life. And the accursed question of the price of goodness, which somehow turns into evil, is also posed by life. Or rather, by death. 'Sasha Filipenko is one of those young authors who immediately became serious writers. If you want to know what young Russia is thinking today, read Filipenko' (Svetlana Alexievich).