About the book: 1968 / The title of the new book by Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov surprisingly echoes the subtitle of his first poetic cycle: more than half a century ago then, still a very young poet, preceded his poems with the soldier’s modest and stern words - “From a marching notebook.” And now the reader opens the book of the greatest master of our literature - “The Book of the Way.” Explaining the meaning of this title in a short preface, the author connects it with Eastern traditions and themes of Asia, but we cannot help but connect “The Book of the Way” also with the personality of the writer himself, with his biography, with his vigorous social activities. More than half a century ago, the spirit revolution, the thunderous wind of impending changes captured the youthful imagination of Nikolai Tikhonov, and from those distant years he seemed to have absorbed the greatest truth of life - service to the people and the cause of the liberation struggle. With a rifle in his hands, an ordinary soldier of the Red Army, the poet defended revolutionary Petrograd from the White Guards Yudenich's hordes, and more than twenty years later, during the Great Patriotic War, in the difficult days of the blockade, he was again among the defenders of his native city. His poetic voice inspired not only heroic fellow Leningraders to fight - breaking through the blockade, he penetrated into. the hearts of all Soviet people, instilling in them faith and the will to win. For half a century, book after book fell on the reader’s table. They were amazing and every time they became a phenomenon in our literature; they - like living history, like eyewitness testimony - told about the difficult and wonderful years of the birth and formation of our socialist state, revealed the richness of the spiritual world of Soviet people; they served and continue to serve the great cause on earth - the construction of communism. Nikolai Semenovich Tikhonov was the first among Soviet writers to be awarded the high title of Hero of Socialist Labor. A participant in four wars, he is now known as a tireless fighter for peace on our planet. Enormous creative and life experience, a constant desire for the unusual and new, for distant travels, a special attachment to the romantic East - all this helps the writer each time in his own way, excitingly and vividly reveal his chosen theme of friendship of peoples. Nikolai’s works are realistic in their essence Tikhonov organically includes many elements of the adventure genre, apparent fantasy, and detective fiction. But the fascinating plot in itself never prevents the writer from equally organically introducing into it deep thoughts about human and national destinies. Thus, the story “Gray Hanuman” may seem fantastic, telling about events that are simply incredible - about how, for example, the leader of a monkey tribe allegedly preparing a conspiracy against people, against humanity. But behind the seeming “miracles” lies the cruelest reality. And not an escape from this reality, but an invasion into it and its most realistic depiction - this is precisely the principle that the writer proclaims and affirms in his work. Despite all the extraordinary circumstances and characters, they are all taken by the artist from life. And Pak Rono from the story “In a Carefree City,” and his unusual guest who kills the beautiful Sentan, the whole terrible tragedy of these people, possible only in the former colonial East, is the cruel truth of life; and the wise Seyaji, talking about what he saw in his century for eight decades (“Seyadzhi”), and the Syrian poet Nuaime (“Night of Al-Qadr”), and the resourceful Fatih, who saves people during an earthquake (“Zelzel”), and finally, Katta-Ulla from the story “Rose” , - all these are truthful characters, seen by the artist and shown in all their originality. The story “Six Columns” is dedicated to exposing the corrupted bourgeois morality penetrating into the new, newly independent states of the East. Its finale sounds symbolic. The rogue and art businessman Mossar is offered a look at the ancient marble