Discord in nature, muteness and lack of words in everyday life begin above all with the impoverishment of the soul. Today not only nature is on the brink of being violated or completely destroyed, but also those eternal moral principles on which our society has always rested. Preserving them, protecting them within one’s own soul—this is what seems to be salvation. And this is what Michail Nikolayevich Shchukin passionately writes about in his novel “The Edge.” His heroes’ lives are tested to breaking point, facing the harsh demands of life. Only through long and painful trials does Stepan Berestov, the novel’s main character, arrive at his own truth.