“The Last Day of Summer” by Andrey Podshibyakin is like if Stephen King had written about Rostov of 1993—but Podshibyakin knows Rostov better. Rostov-on-Don, 1993. A hot autumn. While power changes yet again in the capital and the country tries to shake off paralysis and get used to a new reality, four eighth-graders live a typical life of the 90s teens. They learn through boredom, watch foreign action films in video halls, fight until the first blood, kick a ball around the yard, raising clouds of dust. Life, even if it’s incomprehensible and very hard, goes on… For how long? The land in the Don delta has seen plenty of tragedies: wars and epidemics, famine and invasions—it’s soaked in blood to its very foundations. Somewhere beneath the buried mounds, an ancient Evil is dozing. Once it spread terror among the Scythians, Romans, and Ottomans, turning cities and villages into dust. All it takes is one small coincidence for this primitive, deadly Beginning to awaken. Is it enough for just one tiny mishap? And who can stop it? Rights to the film adaptation were bought even before the novel was published—so listen to the audiobook before the series release! – – .