"These are stories about the strange creatures and spirits of my neighborhood, the place where I grew up—a werewolf cat who transforms into a woman, a vampire who becomes a trainer at a Soviet gym for teenagers, but most importantly—about a mysterious river that everyone has forgotten and lives on, unaware of the country beneath them. The action always begins, ends, or takes place entirely in the area that, in the late 1950s, became a Moscow microdistrict, bounded by Lomonosovsky Prospekt, Panfyorova Street, Leninsky Prospekt, and Vavilov Street, where the underground Chura River originates. I grew up in this area; it really does exist, although it doesn't completely match the one in the text, but complete coincidences can be far more terrifying than the most terrifying creatures you'll soon encounter. The book tells of vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, ancient powerful spirits, modern writers, police officers, drug addicts, and high school teachers, as well as other intelligent characters, such as a sexually obsessed fox, an aesthete sniper who kills Muscovites, and a mysterious "black kebab maker." In fact, the book is not about this, but about something entirely different!

Second edition, expanded with new text and illustrations.