And Every Day the Sun Rises

Kirill Smorodin is a traveler and the author of the well-known book “537 Days Without a Safety Net. How I Quit Everything and Went to Travel the World.” When depression became unbearable, he decided to go on a trip around the world. Other countries, new acquaintances, strong emotions, the book’s release, and readers’ attention—everything seemed to suggest that life had finally returned to the light.

But the new novel is an honest account of what “a happy end” turned out to be: only a pause. Depression hasn’t gone away—it has simply hidden, so that at some point it can squeeze its grip again. Trying not to let darkness win, the protagonist once again chooses the familiar rescue— the road. However, it soon becomes clear that what once helped no longer works.

Having ended up in a foreign country on the brink of collapse, he finds himself in a psychiatric clinic. There, among people with different stories, he begins to look more closely at himself and reaches a difficult conclusion: you can’t outrun inner emptiness. Depression can recede, but it doesn’t guarantee final disappearance. Is it possible to live without belief in complete recovery? Can falling to the very bottom become the only honest beginning? What do you do with loneliness that doesn’t dissolve even in a crowd?

This book doesn’t hand out instructions and doesn’t promise a lifesaving solution. It gives voice to what people more often prefer to keep silent about: existence without self-deception, without the requirement of a guaranteed happy ending, and without confidence in tomorrow.

For those who need a direct, adult conversation.