Vladimir Sorokin's new novel is a glimpse into the future of Europe, which, despite the dramatic changes in the world and human structure, seems recognizable and real. The familiar and the unrecognizable coexist peacefully on a vibrant tapestry of the New Middle Ages, populated by dog-headed people and centaurs, little people and giants, crusaders and Orthodox communists. The infinitely diverse nations, large and small, reshuffled and divided into principalities, khanates, republics, and kingdoms, have, as in the Middle Ages of the last millennium, one thing in common: the search for the absolute, the Kingdom of God on earth. Only now the gaze of seekers turns not to the Kingdom of Prester John, but to the Republic of Telluria, to its deposits of the magical metal that brings happiness.