About the book: 1993 / Friedrich Gorenstein ─ one of the brightest and most original talents of modern Russian literary abroad. His fate is dramatic: having published the story “The House with a Turret” in the magazine “Youth” in 1964, which was noted by connoisseurs of literature, Gorenshtein could not publish a single line with us, although he worked a lot, inspiredly and fruitfully. This volume consists of two works of different genres. The novel “Psalm” is a tragic panorama of our life, covering several decades - from collectivization and the subsequent famine to the times of stagnation with their ideological and moral turmoil. The harsh realism of everyday life merges in the work with moral and philosophical issues that go back to biblical images and parables. The reading drama “The Child Killer” is dedicated to a historical plot that has a considerable tradition in Russian art and literature - the execution of Tsarevich Alexei, the son of Peter 1. The author offers in the play his interpretation of the bloody conflict between the crowned father and son, the characters of the main characters and the entire Peter the Great era.