Sapphire Albatross

A provincial boy discovers in himself the gift of seeing the world through others' eyes and, as an adult, ends up in the Petersburg House on the embankment across from the Church of the Savior on Blood. This house also stands on the blood and suffering of the Soviet writers who lived there, yet the ruthless denouncer Felix calls this house the Chicken Coop on the Canal, portraying the history of its famous inhabitants as a story of cowardice and opportunism. But for the main character, who has to go through their suffering in a phantasmagoric world, Soviet literature appears in the guise of an albatross in the chicken coop.
The novel contains many vivid sketches from the past and present, encompassing life, tears, and love; there is the shock of a father seeing his adult son for the first time, and there is a monument to the Soviet era that has taken flight. The novel combines everyday authenticity and engaging storytelling with a strong symbolic and phantasmagorical essence.
What is more valuable: truth or mercy? Melikhov's novel, despite its bitter truth, is not a merciless tribunal but a quest for understanding.