A forty-year-old collector of antiques is not as simple and boring as he seems. He is involved in a crime, and the more diligently he tries to hide this connection, the more internal demons torment him. The antique dealer suffers from insomnia, reminisces about his youth, and battles with himself: there are quite dark pages in his personal history, in the best traditions of Dostoevsky, Hoffmann, Poe, and Nabokov. The life of the story's hero — a collector of antiques, a connoisseur of unique objects that are not subject to reproduction — seems dull in terms of external events. But once you catch a glimpse of the surges of his internal experiences and passions, everything around comes into strange motion. The hero has a secret, a forbidden attraction, an incident that occurred 20 years ago, which he seems eager to forget, but fate changes everything, and the past rolls in like a wave that overwhelms his sanity. Has the criminal found his punishment? Reason is put to shame. Quote: "An antique dealer is always the one who sells the hero his secret passion; is it any wonder that it immediately enslaves him! Much more significant to me was the seller himself, always detached, always unwittingly left in the shadows. Meanwhile, it was precisely through his efforts that all those bizarre creations of unknown hands, minds, and intuitions were collected, which at one moment captivated a financially solvent buffoon, but — and this is again always in the shadows! — were powerless before their seller, the intermediary, the temporary holder, though he too once received them into his hands, comprehended them with his mind or chose them among others with the force of perception! And how much did his random victims know about those things he did not offer them? Isn't it there, in this confrontation between things and a person who can appreciate, understand, and handle them, that the secret of the profession, the skill, and the love of the seeker of secrets lies?" The book belongs to contemporary literary fiction and makes a suitable gift. Recommended for lovers of quality prose and those seeking new names in Russian literature.
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