The Butterfly Collector in the Stomach. Part Three

The third part of the novel about aesthetics and sensual pleasures. Returning from Urbino to Russia, Renato tries to find peace. For the last four months, he has been living in a cottage belonging to Marta—his friend and curator, the only person, like the once-beloved Nelli, who understands him without explanations. But a crude wooden mask that Marta brings from an exhibition awakens a forgotten impulse in him—to start painting portraits again.

Renato’s trip to the mask maker Amai becomes a turning point, after which it is no longer possible to go back to the way things were. His creative partnership with Marta begins to fall apart. He goes back to his own studio, while Marta plunges headlong into preparing an olfactory exhibition, pulling him into the work as well. It is there that Renato meets Polina and catches himself thinking that this encounter felt as if it had been predetermined.

Fate leads him once again to the restaurant with Nelli—and from there, everything unfolds unpredictably. Will Renato keep his bond with devoted Marta, whose quiet support kept him afloat, or will he give in to a new, dangerous passion capable of shattering the fragile balance?