About the book: 2007 / The surest path to creative immortality is to write from the point of view of eternity. It is from this position that Chingiz Aitmatov, a classic of Russian and Kyrgyz literature and winner of the most prestigious awards, writes his prose. In 1980, the publication of the novel “And the day lasts longer than a century...” (then it was published under the title “Stormy Stop”) created a sensation among the reading public, and Chingiz Aitmatov was finally assigned the title of “ruler of thoughts.” The author of famous works, translated into dozens of world languages, parable stories “The White Steamship”, “Farewell, Gyulsary!”, “The Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea”, he then created a new work, which today, decades later, sounds tragically relevant and which became a bridge to the next parables of Ch. Aitmatov - the novels “The Scaffold” and “Cassandra’s Brand”. Edigei is the main character of the novel, a railway worker who lived almost his entire life at the Boranly-Buranny junction, lost in the vast Sarozek steppes, and only two took root in this harsh land - Edigei and his friend Kazangap. And now the time has come for Kazangap to die. Having lost his best friend, Edigei decides to bury him in the ancient cemetery of Ana-Beyit, covered with many legends and traditions. At the same time, another storyline is woven into the artistic fabric of the novel, connected with the establishment of contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, the planet Lesnaya Grud, which has gone far ahead in its development.