Time of Timelessness. Vol. 3

The third volume of the cycle «Stories of the 80s» includes the novella «Island of the SSO», the play «Engineers», and the short story «Meeting». The novella «Island of the SSO» has already been published separately by our publishing house; it is a semi-documentary tale about the patriotic movement of Soviet students in the 60s to 80s. The author has been in construction brigades eight times, thus he has found the true words - both about the organization of the brigades with all its complicated stages and about the hard work, about creativity, «explosive» - akin to work - rest, about songs and about love. It is no coincidence that the subtitle of the book states - «Song». The song is about youth, trials, and love.

The play «Engineers» has a different tone - now the breath of that very «time of timelessness» mentioned in the subtitle of the cycle can be clearly heard: most technical intellectuals - engineers - are becoming unclaimed in a country losing its momentum, and the story of the meeting of classmates-energy specialists five years after graduation is a subtle illustration of the impending stagnation. The same theme resonates in the story titled «Meeting». The meeting of friends in a not-so-distant bright future did not take place because the bright future itself did not materialize, yet the mood of the story, as well as its epigraph, is optimistic: «...And even if the meeting does not take place, we will meet»!