The name of Andrey Astvatsaturov, literary scholar, professor at St. Petersburg State University, is well known not only in the professional philological community: he is the author of books and articles on Anglo-American literature, novels "People in the Nude," "Skunkamera," "Autumn in the Pockets," "Don't Feed or Touch the Pelicans." In the new book, Andrey Astvatsaturov addresses the work of 20th-century classics as well as contemporary Russian writers. The combination of serious subject matter and engaging style of presentation, thanks to which Astvatsaturov is known as an excellent lecturer, is also present in his literary studies. His virtuoso analysis allows one to see paradoxes, seemingly in the canonical works of Anglo-American modernists — Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Jerome David Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike. And contemporary Russian authors unexpectedly appear as their heirs: Roman Senchin's crime story reveals the plot of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire," and the chronicler of the Russian diaspora Andrey Ivanov appears as the Russian Henry Miller. The book is addressed to a wide range of readers — both philologists and those who want to better understand the works of world classics, get acquainted with the most prominent names of contemporary Russian literature, and feel the intricate logic of the literary process.