Igor did not really expect much from this job: an abandoned boiler room in an industrial zone, colleagues with criminal records, what goals and tasks could there be? "I need to get drunk," thinks Igor, climbing to your neighbors. One-two-three-four, just don't confuse the floor. Do you hear noise upstairs? It's not kids acting up, it's gunshots. Alexey Salnikov is a Russian poet and prose writer. He has been published in the almanac "Babylon", magazines "Vozdukh", "Ural", "Uralskaya Nov", and others. His novel "The Petrovs in and Around the Flu" was shortlisted for the "Big Book" and "NOS" awards and became one of the most discussed books of 2017. "Department" is a new novel by the laureate of the "NOS" and "Big Book" awards, finalist of the "National Bestseller" award, author of "The Petrovs in and Around the Flu", Alexey Salnikov. "Dark, tough, and very witty — like 'Men in Black' through the eyes of Balabanov." Yegor Mikhaylov, Afisha Daily "A book that disrupts the peace of the reader, the rules of the genre, and the law of gravity." Konstantin Milchin, chief editor of "Gorky" website "Salnikov's world is full of wonders and at the same time understandable. It has humor and mystery. It is beautifully arranged, with love and effortlessly. If this does not distinguish the work of a great writer, then what does?" Alexander Snegirev, writer, laureate of the "Russian Booker" award "One reader will see in the novel a skillfully actualized parable on the theme 'We were only following orders', another — an existential drama of voluntary self-annihilation, a third — a desperately calm realism of the period of accumulated capital degradation, a fourth — a dystopia reinterpreting classic American and Soviet science fiction, a fifth — a long-cherished Great Russian Novel, zealously defining the price of a sold soul and a tear of a tormented child. And every reader will be right. Salnikov knows how to grant readers extended rights and powers — including the right for the reader to horrify discovering himself in the Department and the Department within himself. A horrifying, necessary, and timely book." Shamil Idiatullin, writer