The hero of the new novel "Lavra" is a medieval physician. Possessing the gift of healing, he nonetheless cannot save his beloved and decides to take her earthly path in her place. Thus life turns into a life of devotion. He tends the plague-stricken and the wounded, the poor and the infirm—and the more he sacrifices himself, the stronger his gift becomes. But is it possible to save a person’s soul through love and sacrifice if he failed to protect her earthly body?
Yevgeny Vodolazkin is a philologist, a specialist in Old Russian literature, author of the novel "Solovyov and Larionov," a collection of essays "The Instrument of Language," and other books.