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Alekseĭ Varlamov - prozaik, filolog, issledovatelʹ russkoĭ literatury XX veka, laureat premii Aleksandra Solzhenit͡syna i "Bolʹshoĭ knigi". "Sluchaĭ na uzlovoĭ stant͡sii" - ėto ne prosto sbornik, a t͡selyĭ materik russkoĭ zhizni, gde neozhidanno skhodi͡atsi͡a poezda iz raznykh ėpokh: ot dorevoli͡ut͡sionnoĭ ssylki do likhikh devi͡anostykh. Nemoĭ bogomolet͡s i prodazhnyĭ zhurnalist, kupecheskai͡a dochʹ, lishennai͡a prava golosa, i professor, prodai͡ushchiĭ Gentskiĭ altarʹ za deshevui͡u strastʹ, - geroi ėtoĭ knigi nikogda ne idut pri͡amoĭ dorogoĭ. Oni plutai͡ut v labirintakh neznakomykh gorodov, teri͡ai͡utsi͡a v stepi, zamerzai͡ut na sluchaĭnykh polustankakh i nakhodi͡at nochleg tam, gde ne zhdali. Varlamov pishet o tom, kak strashno i prekrasno bytʹ chelovekom v ėpokhu, kogda "vse smeshalosʹ, i ne stalo ni very, ni bezverii͡a". Ėto pronzitelʹnai͡a, pochti osi͡azaemai͡a proza o russkom kharaktere v dukhe Leskova, Bunina i Shukshina, gde "svi͡azʹ" mezhdu li͡udʹmi okazyvaetsi͡a edinstvennym nastoi͡ashchim tainstvom.

Alexey Varlamov is a novelist, philologist, researcher of Russian literature of the 20th century, winner of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize and the Big Book Prize. "The Case at the junction station" is not just a collection, but a whole continent of Russian life, where trains from different eras suddenly converge: from pre—revolutionary exile to the dashing nineties. A mute worshipper and a corrupt journalist, a merchant's daughter deprived of the right to vote, and a professor who sells a Ghent altar for cheap passion— the characters in this book never walk a straight path. They get lost in the labyrinths of unfamiliar cities, get lost in the steppe, freeze at random stops and find a place to sleep where they did not expect. Varlamov writes about how scary and wonderful it is to be a human being in an era when "everything got mixed up and there was no faith or lack of faith." It is a poignant, almost tangible prose about the Russian character in the spirit of Leskov, Bunin and Shukshin, where the "connection" between people turns out to be the only real mystery.