The author is grateful to Sergei Gandlevsky and Lev Rubinstein, who helped the characters in this novel - Gdlevsky and Lorelei Rubinstein - to write their beautiful poetry

Yesterday at shortly after two in the morning the inhabitants of the Goliath company's apartment building on Semyonovskaya Street were awoken by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground, which was immediately followed by the protracted howling of a pointer dog belonging to photographer S., who rented a studio in the attic.

Genji is not at all like Isaiah, but his prophecy concerning me appears to have come true: the strong has come forth out of the week.

Please do not combine "Ljubovnik smerti" (Любовник смерти, Die Liebhaber des Todes" with "Ljubovnica smerti" (Любовница смерти, Der Magier von Moskau). Those are two separate works.