The new stories by Vladimir Sorokin focus on women: in war and in a cruel world, in circumstances hostile to feminine nature.

A concentration camp guard, a future star of progressive art, a little girl in a Soviet hospital, a young chess prodigy, a student during the Perestroika era, and other heroines of the collection form a gallery of poignant, precise, and diverse portraits united by one theme: the violence they endure irreversibly changes them, but instead of erasing, it sharpens their individuality.

Sorokin remains true to himself—constructing carnival-like dystopias, juggling quotes from canonical Russian literature, and materializing metaphors. At the same time, he continues to move in a new direction. There is increasing empathy for the witnesses and involuntary participants of great geopolitical dramas. The narrative style and lyricism, set by "The Blizzard" and continued in "Doctor Garin," are particularly evident in "De feminis."

Sensitive to the spirit of the times and consistently ahead in his assessments, Vladimir Sorokin clearly stands against the dehumanization of antagonists.