About the book: 1960 / Once during my summer wanderings, I stopped in one of the Volga cities. It was Sunday. I was tired of hanging around the piers, and having nothing else to do, I went to the zoological garden. The garden was bad. Several wolves were running behind the rusty bars. Nearby, five sharp fox faces stared at me. There were also a dejected bison, several cranes, and a porcupine. But most of the people stood in the outer alley, where behind a palisade and a small ditch a large brown bear sat in the open air. He was decrepit, noticeably bald, and the fur matted on his belly stuck out in clumps, like tow from a sofa. Mishka's eyes were dull and indifferent. He looked condescendingly at the people gathered in front of him..