These characters are caught in surreal situations which test their ability to retain their humanity. Makanin's world is one of deliberate ambiguity, where nothing, not even the story itself, is as it seems, and haunting imagery is used to appeal directly to a reader's subconscious. "Vladimir Makanin's name belongs at the top of any list of socialist, or now post-socialist, surrealists...The power of Mr. Makanin's fiction lies precisely in its ambiguity."--New York Times Book Review