The Shanty of a Debtor and Other Tales for the Wise

The principle of an ordinary miracle is the foundation of Shefner's writing (it's no coincidence that Shefner and Schwartz start with the same letter). And — the simplicity of his modest geniuses, who do not really ponder what kind of... miracle they have invented (for them it is a matter of life); the main thing is that this miracle brings joy to at least someone. And — the "complexity" of his other characters, those who perform practical miracles: four-sided bicycle spokes, soap called "Don't Steal", filled inside with black liquid that marks the thief. And... Many of these "ands" make up the essence of the remarkable phenomenon named Vadim Shefner. The master wrote a lot. An achingly sad, wonderful "Sister of Sorrow". More than two dozen books of lyric poetry. But he excelled best in stories about quirky people, where fantasy is so tightly intertwined with reality that it's not easy to determine the genre to which these works belong. Here, if we compare (though any comparison can be misleading), we can place Shefner alongside Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the father of what has been called "magical realism" in literature. But not on a Latin American, rather on a Russian soil. The collection includes the best of the writer's work in this fantastic genre.