The novel “Searching for a Purpose” (1995) is the first of two major works written by Boris Strugatsky without a co-author (under the pseudonym S. Vititsky). And, if not a paraphrase, then definitely the younger answering the elder’s story “The Devil Among Men”—a new version of an old shared concept. The answer turned out worthy—brilliantly executed in both plot and language. And of course, from the first line to the last, the novel is permeated with the spirit of the Strugatskys—priceless for the reader, unmistakable.