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Aleksey Varlamov — prozayk, fylolog, yssledovatel russkoy lyteratury XX veka, laureat premyy Aleksandra Solzhenytsyna y "Bolshoy knygy". "Sluchay na uzlovoy stantsyy" — eto ne prosto sbornyk, a tselyy materyk russkoy zhyzny, gde neozhydanno skhodyatsya poezda yz raznykh epokh: ot dorevolyutsyonnoy ssylky do lykhykh devyanostykh. Nemoy bogomolets y prodazhnyy zhurnalyst, kupecheskaya doch, lyshennaya prava golosa, y professor, prodayushchyy Gentskyy altar za deshevuyu strast, — geroy etoy knygy nykogda ne ydut pryamoy dorogoy. Ony plutayut v labyryntakh neznakomykh gorodov, teryayutsya v stepy, zamerzayut na sluchaynykh polustankakh y nakhodyat nochleg tam, gde ne zhdaly. Varlamov pyshet o tom, kak strashno y prekrasno byt chelovekom v epokhu, kogda "vse smeshalos, y ne stalo ny very, ny bezveryya". Eto pronzytelnaya, pochty osyazaemaya proza o russkom kharaktere v dukhe Leskova, Bunyna y Shukshyna, gde "svyaz" mezhdu lyudmy okazyvaetsya edynstvennym nastoyashchym taynstvom.

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.