“HAPPINESS FOR EVERYONE, FOR FREE, AND LET NO ONE LEAVE OFFENDED!!!” Those words were spoken by stalker Redrick Shukhart at the bottom of a pit, having found the Golden Ball that grants any wishes. That is how the famous novel by the Strugatsky brothers “Roadside Picnic” ends. But what happened next? For more than forty years, since the cult work was released, fans of Russian science fiction have been asking that question. And now Dmitry Silov has finally written a novel that is a direct continuation of Red Shukhart’s story.
What awaits the famous stalker after he returns from the Zone to his hometown Kharmsont? How will his spoken wish affect the future of the distant Chernobyl Zone of alienation—and the fate of the Sniper?