The Death of Ivan Ilyich

In a story whose title intentionally echoes Leo Tolstoy’s famous novella, the author portrays the inner world of a modern middle-aged person in the last seconds of his life before a random, absurd death—subjectively stretched out over many hours. This man continues to think and remember, but is deprived of the ability to move, as if suspended in the air right before the radiator that is about to crush him with his own truck’s load. And yet he manages to make an attempt at the last act of his life—an impulse dictated by an unquenchable, unshowy desire to care for his loved ones—though, it’s likely that precisely this attempt brings the surrounding world back into motion and puts an end to his meaningless immobility—not in life, but not yet in death either.