The works selected for this book are representative pieces published during the author's lifetime. The prose has a strong poetic tone, which gently soothes or sharply irritates all the senses at once. Multilayered fairy-tale images, a fantastic thread connecting the individual episodes, a criminal flavor, an element of surprise at the end of each act, a triumph of the spirit. Obsessed with mystery, the author introduces us to a breathtaking verbal treasure trove, entirely under the power of Mystery, which dazzles with bright, colorful brilliance or hides somewhere in the darkness and deep shadows. Dreams, fantasies, sensuality, eroticism, physical sensations, emotional struggles, spiritual longings, intellectualized sensuality, multifaceted thinking, and detached analysis. Everything becomes possible through the obsessive disconnection of the personality and the opposition of conflicting essences forced to coexist in one body. Surrendering to carnal temptation, although depicted with generous theatrical extravagance and mastery, is never an end in itself, but an attempt to create a surprising, enigmatic masterpiece of supreme unity with the long-sought soul mate or with oneself, perhaps scattered across many bodies. A relentless pursuit of perfection, realized in an inimitable work of art, created from the imaginary twists and turns of life." Vera Kirkova