A Good Brother is a Dead Brother

In the short prose of Vladimir Medvedev, the absurd, the supernatural, and the real are intertwined so seamlessly that it is not always clear where one ends and the other begins. Grief, despair, excruciating pain, and an unexpectedly awakened sense of duty push the characters into unusual actions.

They encounter spirits, use magical artifacts, and discover superhuman abilities within themselves while remaining ordinary people: frightened, bewildered, not always crystal clear in their morality, or those who are guided by higher ideals in the name of establishing a world order.

And it turns out that no magic can overcome ordinary human flaws. However, spirits and demons are also not devoid of something human.