The novel “Berry Places,” written a quarter of a century ago by an already famous poet, made then an ambiguous impression both on readers and on critics—and on censorship as well. This is a novel about Russia and about the planet Earth, about humankind and about the human being, about history and the present. And it hasn’t grown outdated in the slightest. It is captivating and unusual. It is layered and full of different characters; its heroes are Tsiolkovsky and Allende, the head of a geological expedition and a “little old man-mushroom picker,” and even two unseen beings Ы-Ы and Й-Й from the Galaxy of Immortality…
“Where is the world going?”—the author’s key question has always remained relevant, and his literary mastery simply cannot fail to surprise the reader.