The writers' walk along the boulevards, the awarding of the Booker Prize for "the best novel of the year", which, whatever one may say, was not a novel, but a chamber story by Andrei Dmitriev (there was no novel this year), and finally, the presentation of the "Big Book" to the elder Daniil Granin, who has essentially already left the modern literary scene, as well as the subsequent heated discussion in the press not at all about whether there was a clear leader this year (there wasn't!), but about the non-awarding of Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) - all testify to one thing: the most interesting things this year happened outside of "high" literature. Over the course of the year, and only towards the very end, one truly brilliant artistic text appeared in Russian, both unexpected and profound - the novel "Laurus" by Yevgeny Vodolazkin.

But here's the surprising thing: the reader hasn't noticed this yet. The story of a medieval saint who went through healing, passionate love, foolishness, monasticism, stubbornly walking towards Love, captivated him much less than the stories about the Orthodox priests of Archimandrite Tikhon.

The phenomenal success of Everyday Saints (more than a million copies have been sold) has several explanations. First: the collection of stories about the conversion of a VGIK student to Orthodoxy, his departure to a monastery, life among ascetic monks, the reality of the world of angels and demons is written easily and captivatingly by a talented author who is great at holding the reader's attention. Second, and no less important: Archimandrite Tikhon tells about the world of monasticism, which is not widely known. Third: his stories are full of not only exotic material, but also mysticism. This has always attracted the general reader, who is invariably drawn to the miraculous and mysterious. Finally, fourth and perhaps most important: Orthodoxy always triumphs in this book. In a word, Archimandrite Tikhon wrote real Orthodox fairy tales. About the heroic priests who fearlessly fight Soviet officials, who almost sent Furtseva herself to hell, and face the enemy of the human race. For a million readers, it is not so important whether this is true or not. What is important is that good wins. And even if God sometimes seems quite vengeful in "Unholy Saints" - but even in fairy tales, the "bad guys" are always punished.

The mass reader (and, it seems, not only the mass reader) does not need the complex and acute questions that the same Vodolazkin confronts them with, he prays for a lullaby, a soothing, comforting book. Well, here, take it quickly. And to follow, there are also several clone books - with similar covers, also about miracles and also in large print runs. Well, and fans of "high reading", requiring effort, who have already read "Laurus", will now have to wait until next year.

"Unholy Saints": Archimandrite Tikhon presented readers with a fairy tale