The future has come and gone, the nuclear war is almost forgotten, not everyone survived, and those who did will never be the same again. The peace treaty did not lead to peace: violence became the norm and a necessity, tolerance for it is more contagious than the Bolivian virus. In the final part of the trilogy about Doctor Garin, Vladimir Sorokin depicts the next stage of post-apocalyptic decay, even more distant from us. But its reality paradoxically seems much more recognizable. True, we do not immediately recognize the main character, but he still, as befits a doctor, remains an example of dignity and humanity.

The train, an unchanging image connecting Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet literature, goes from east to west. Its fuel is people, not in a metaphorical but in a literal sense, and they have nowhere else to run. But the wonderful doctor and his unusual heirs give hope that the maddened world has not only an end, but also a happier continuation.