Lyudmila Petrushevskaya is someone who knows how to work with chaos. She's known it since her hungry childhood during the war. Today, the girl who sang in the courtyards of Kuibyshev for bread is a celebrated writer, and people call her "great." And she is. The great Petrushevskaya is always the voice of the times. In her plays ("Music Lessons," "Three Girls in Blue," "Moscow Choir," "Cinzano"), in her prose ("My Circle," "Time Is Night"), in her screenplays (of course, "Tale of Tales"), in her poetry, in her songs, and in her paintings...

But today, Petrushevskaya says, "There Is No Time." That's the title she gave to her book, which she's long wanted to compile from the texts of an online diary she started back in 2016. It's a chronicle of how we've lived in recent years, a guide through chaos, absurdity, and terrible change. Here, everything is called by its proper name, everything is honest, funny, poignant, and fearless. Yes, it's as if time no longer exists. There's no justice, no peace... so many things are missing. But, says Petrushevskaya, there is a bouquet of bells. And our children, and freedom, of course.