In his new book, the Leningrad writer Valery Popov shows the sharpness, depth, and unusualness of the "ordinary" life of a modern city dweller. A humorous, grotesque style of thinking helps the heroes keep a smile in case of failure, and if successful, the necessary self-irony. The story "New Scheherazade" is about a young provincial woman passing on the way to her "ideal" through various strata of society.