"The Mire" by Dmitry Glukhovsky, summary Automatic translate

This book is a psychological mystical thriller, written as a detailed cinematic script and published in 2024. The text blurs the line between harsh reality and clammy hallucination. The plot blends sharp social satire with a profound exploration of human nature, hidden fears, and corrosive guilt. Specific stage directions clearly describe the lens, sound, and lighting, transporting the reader into the tense scene and creating a powerful sense of presence.

The work gained widespread recognition thanks to its phenomenally successful film adaptation. In 2021, a TV series of the same name, directed by Vladimir Mirzoev, was released. The video project instantly became an absolute hit. The series resonated with both mass audiences and rigorous critics.

Escape from the capital

Denis Titov, the head of the successful tech startup TrueTalk, receives his fatal diagnosis. An inoperable brain tumor leaves the young man with little time to live, and the doctor bluntly declares that only a miracle can help. His mother desperately persuades Denis to travel to the miraculous Spas-Prognaniye Monastery near the remote Arkhangelsk village of Topi. According to the monastery’s strict rules, Denis must bring three other people with him. He uses a popular social network to gather random travel companions seeking escape from their personal catastrophes.

Journalist Maxim Koltsov sets out to find a sensational story, hoping to revive his career after a recent scandalous dismissal. Sonya is fleeing her domineering Orthodox father after the sudden death of her sister, Liza, in a horrific motorcycle accident. She is tormented by unbearable guilt over a secret sexual affair with her sister’s boyfriend. Katya seeks refuge from her obsessive fear of loneliness after her fiancé cynically abandoned her on the eve of her thirtieth birthday. Muslim woman Elya is fleeing her ex-husband, Daud, who cold-bloodedly shot her new lover, Andrei, right before her eyes.

A train drops off five Muscovites at an empty forest siding late at night. A stern local driver takes the guests through thick fog along a potholed road, but suddenly there’s a violent collision with a logging truck. The young men recover from the impact, but the driver vanishes, seemingly into thin air. Khariton, the driver of a funeral truck, comes to the rescue, and with him, the Muscovites cross a river ford. The village appears deserted, and the few ramshackle houses cautiously hide behind high fences.

Arrival in the Topi

The heroes reach the deserted Spas-Prognaniye Monastery. The vast courtyard is completely deserted. Denis wanders through the cold cells, tormented by a severe, throbbing headache. In the back room, the Muscovite finds a priest, Father Ilya, hanged. Katya saves Denis, writhing on the dirty floor, with a huge handful of pills. The frightened group returns to the village and rents a place to stay with a local woman, Baba Nyura, who feeds the guests potatoes. That night, Katya mysteriously disappears, leaving behind her personal belongings and a charging phone.

In the morning, Denis and Maxim search unsuccessfully for the missing Katya in empty houses and call the local drunkard, Captain, but the policeman flatly refuses to open a case. Elya combs the damp forest with a pistol in her purse and makes a grisly discovery: a bag containing severed dog heads hanging from a tree. Soon, the fugitive encounters two armed criminals, Chuchundra and Khorem, who live in a forest hut. The fugitives are deathly afraid of a certain Master and dare not leave their protective circle.

The locals behave unpredictably, and Max meets young Arina, who cares for her mentally disabled mother. Crimson smoke from the Porozhsky plant constantly hangs over the horizon, illuminating the sky at night. The journalist suspects that toxic chemical discharges into the local water are causing mass hallucinations among the residents. Denis notices Baba Nyura’s husband, still alive, despite having previously seen the old man’s gravestone in the overgrown village cemetery.

Miracles and Nightmares

Sonya goes to the monastery to pray for her dead sister and suddenly encounters Father Ilya, still alive. She sincerely begs him to forgive Lisa for her sins, and inexplicably, her dead sister materializes within the walls of the dilapidated church. Lisa is frightened, disoriented, and aggressively demands to be returned home to Moscow. Sonya painfully realizes her mistake, as Lisa’s resurrection has brought only terrible suffering: the resurrected woman is physically unable to leave the church walls. Lisa experiences excruciating pain and vomits blood with every slightest attempt to leave.

Elya sneaks into the courtyard of a tall, abandoned building, where she finds Katya’s missing yellow scarf. There, she is suddenly attacked by a ferocious guard dog. Elya is captured by the Missing One — a severely disfigured former soldier who faithfully serves the Master. The man ties up his captive and brutally tortures her in a dark basement, obediently awaiting orders from the mysterious commander. Soon, Elya miraculously manages to escape and flee into the dense forest. The fugitive falls right into the clutches of the Master, who disguises Elya as her hated husband, Daud.

Denis, driven completely to distraction by new, savage attacks of pain, voluntarily comes to the Master. He appears before the Muscovite in the guise of the very first missing driver from the station. Denis humbly begs for healing and offers the lives of his unsuspecting companions in exchange. With a single touch of his palm, the Master relieves Denis of his growing tumor, sternly demanding absolute obedience. Before the broken Denis’s eyes, the Master coldly executes Elya with a heavy axe on a tree stump in the monastery courtyard, forcing the boy to watch the bloody massacre.

Deals and payback

Max finds an old newspaper clipping on a blind old man and learns the terrible truth. The owner is Sergei Danilovich Alyabyev, the general director of a secret chemical plant. The boss maintains a primal fear throughout the area, forcing people to obey him and killing random visitors for his perverse amusement. The journalist catches a weak cell phone signal behind the monastery walls and calls a Moscow radio station. Max is eager to broadcast an incriminating report live to the entire country and become famous.

Alyabyev easily seizes the initiative, cynically offering Maxim the position of editor-in-chief of a major Moscow publication and a substantial sum of cash. The journalist instantly breaks down and, on air, delivers a flawless eulogy to the plant’s wise director. Horrified, Sonya realizes the selfishness of her prayers, sincerely confesses her betrayal to Liza, and releases her sister. Liza dies completely, freed forever from her artificial torment. Denis calls his mother but categorically refuses to return home.

Alyabyev forces Denis to get behind the wheel of a black SUV, while the corrupt Captain sits in the back, pointing his service pistol at the hostages. Alyabyev leans out the open hatch, reveling in absolute impunity and unlimited power over the destinies of others. Denis clearly realizes the futility of his miraculous recovery at the cost of others’ lives and grips the steering wheel tightly. Denis abruptly steers the heavy vehicle onto a rickety river bridge. The car crashes through the flimsy barrier, plunges into the deep, murky water, and rapidly sinks. Handcuffed, Denis and Alyabyev drown along with the heavy vehicle.

Max and Sonya miraculously escape the sinking cabin, swimming to opposite banks of a muddy river. Max returns to the village to Arina, meekly agreeing to live forever in the constant, terrible haze of the Marshes. The captain puts a hallucination of his dead son, Misha, in the company car and drives off along a distant forest road. Sonya walks to a deserted forest stop and boards a passing, dirty passenger train. Sonya leaves the cursed land forever and gazes detachedly out the window at the endless, dead, empty villages.