The Author Didn't Want to Say Anything

Prose writer Shamil Idiatullin — a two-time laureate of the «Big Book» award (novels «Brezhnev City» and «Formerly Lenin»), as well as awards in the fields of science fiction, detective fiction, and young adult literature («Russian Detective», «New Horizons», V. Krapivin Prize, etc.); author of the books «The Fox's Laughter», «Ubyr», «Before February», «It's Too Late to Be Afraid» and others. «Practically my whole life, nothing has interested me more than books. For a quarter of a century, I have been writing (and continue to write) about books and favorite authors — first in an anonymous blog, then on social media and prestigious media outlets». The best of these articles are now gathered in one book. It turned out that some of them form a brief but very engaging course on the history of domestic science fiction, spy detective fiction, and young adult literature, while others provide a candid and detailed account of where and how heroes, plots, and books come from. The Strugatsky Brothers and Kir Bulychev, Vladislav Krapivin and Viktor Konecky, Eduard Verkin and Alexey Salnikov, Mikhail Uspensky and Alexey Ivanov, Yegor Letov and Rudyard Kipling, Leonard Peltier and Dr. Haider, space travelers and spies, imperialists and refuseniks, as well as many other creators and heroes of captivating stories — this book is about them. And a little about the author. Who actually didn't want to say anything at all.