Karagach. Book 1. The Charming Whore

The first part of the famous novel by Sergey Alekseev, dedicated to the legends of the mysterious "kerzhaks" — Old Believers-sectarians living in the remote Siberian taiga, cut off from civilization. This detective-adventurous narrative is about a young lucky geologist who discovered an entirely gold-bearing deposit in the floodplain of the "Karagach" River (northern Altai), but lost the woman he wanted to spend his life with. She was kidnapped by those very kerzhaks right from under his nose. As he rushes to search for her, the hero becomes involved in the great secret of the Old Believers — the existence of an ancient book of prophecies called "Stoves". Together with the hero, the reader will traverse dozens of kilometers through the taiga, learn to survive in the wild, compete with the kerzhaks in the art of concealment and tracking enemies, face representatives of the totalitarian sect "Cedars of the Rod", and discover incredible details of the history and way of life of Russian Old Believers. In the novel, the line between reality and fiction is blurred. Miracles become a part of everyday life. The skillfully written plot of the novel captivates the reader and does not let go until the very end