Y. Senkin-Tolsty managed to create a detonating mixture indeed: this small book is a combination of a witty hoax, a historical treatise, and explosive, emphatic prose built upon the whole of the tradition of world literary journeys. The book compiles the features of A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Stern and satirical grotesque of Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift. It also refers to classical Russian texts such as Karamzin’s Letters of the Russian Traveller and a cult poem Moscow — Petushki by Venedikt Yerofeyev.

The description of an automobile trip from glamorous European-like St. Petersburg to the rural heart of Russia — the Pskov Region — reveals a primordial world inhabited by truly mythological beings. Each settlement passed by the author on his way has its own thrilling story.

The world of Russian village invented by Senkin-Tolsty is populated by descendants of Alexander Pushkin and relatives of the Loch Ness monster; here the dragons can be met and the Holy Grail with the never ending source of vodka can be found. Senkin-Tolsty’s tale transforms the discrepancies of the contemporary Russian life into a harsh satire with a philosophical meaning.