This book is the voice of Maksim Znak, a Belarusian lawyer and writer, a political prisoner, who has been deprived of the right to correspond and meet with his relatives and defenders since February 9, 2023. As of early May 2024, neither his family nor his lawyer have had any information about Maksim for more than 450 days. In international law, such detention is classified as torture and is called the term "incommunicado." In the practice of international human rights mechanisms, it is on a par with enforced disappearances - one of the most serious human rights violations.

The texts of this collection were created in the first year of detention in a pre-trial detention center, when creative activity behind bars and the transfer of manuscripts were still possible. Some of the works are being published for the first time. Despite the circumstances, in a cramped cell and difficult conditions, Maxim retained the strength of spirit and creative freedom that allowed him to reach through the bars of a wide space, combining the ironic and serious, the light and the deep, the lyrical and the everyday.

And — despite the circumstances — the reader of this book can become a part of conversations with Maxim, visit him in his cell, where over a cup of tea they can joke about the sad or argue about the sublime. Or simply read the texts and sing songs to Maxim's words, giving them a voice that they are currently deprived of.