The Queue

The novella “The Line” by Yuli Krelin is about that period in our country’s history when shortages were absolutely everything. The main heroine, Larisa Borisovna, head of the surgical department of a district hospital, learns that in a few days there will be a registration for a queue to buy a car. In order to get into that queue, a special—spontaneous, huge—line is created, where people wait for several days. In it gather people of different interests, viewpoints, and professions—people who, in ordinary life, would hardly meet. In the queue there are their joys and sorrows, conversations, dances, and illnesses. In just 4 days, the entire life of several hundred people becomes one big queue—an endless “LINE.”