The Fears of King Solomon

Solomon Rubinstein, a wealthy elderly man, created the association «SOS Altruists-Lovers» and helps those who are left without support. He offers a young taxi driver a side job: to visit lonely people who lack companionship. Thus begins a story in which urban life, chance encounters, and strangers' confessions gradually lead the hero to difficult questions about compassion, dignity, and the fear of old age. The title of the novel refers to the biblical King Solomon: even a man who has everything — wealth, wisdom, recognition, — cannot escape irrational fear in old age. This is how the altruist heroes refer to this feeling among themselves as «the fears of King Solomon».