Empty Trains of 2022

Dmitry Danilov — playwright of “Seryozha is very stupid”, prose writer of “Horizontal Position”, poet. Laureate of the “Yasnaya Polyana” and “Moscow Art Prize” for the novel “Sasha, hello!”, as well as the “Golden Mask” for the play “The Man... from Podolsk”. “Empty Trains of 2022” — a cycle of essays about journeys by train, where reflections on Russian everyday life intermingle with portraits of fellow travelers and stories of the writer about himself. A leisurely examination of familiar things in an attempt to see something greater behind them — this is the quintessence of Danilov’s style. “Dmitry Danilov gives the impression of a man who has just gotten off the couch for a short time to quickly return to it. In a word, such a classic Oblomov… Therefore, when it turned out that he has an unusual hobby — to travel on small trains along remote railway branches, — I was not surprised. Some call it ‘meditative tourism’. But when a writer engages in this, a short circuit and a spark occur.” Pavel Basinsky “It was nice when most passengers dispersed, when there were nameless stations and desolation. It was nice when the female passenger opposite suddenly said ‘safe travels’. And everything else, if you think about it, was nice too”.