The Zeroth Day follows a former actor haunted by his past who is asked to deliver a mysterious package in exchange for alcohol, leading him to question everything he thought he believed. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

My whole life is what pilots call an area of turbulence. The country in which I was born, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. At the age of 17, I left alone for the USA, which at that time seemed to me as distant and mysterious as Mars. Eleven years later, I returned to a new, free Russia. There I witnessed a gradual transformation of this freedom, first into a “managed democracy,” and then into an authoritarian state. I left for France with my wife and three small children. We did not know the language or traditions of that country but came to love it. Then there was Covid and, finally, the war between an already completely changed Russia and Ukraine. In between, while in the USSR, I saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and two coups; when I lived in the USA, I witnessed the tragedy of September 11th. When I lived in Paris, there were terrorist attacks in the Bataclan. I noticed that I can no longer live without crises. When everything is calm, I expect trouble. Such an interesting and rich life makes you ask questions about what is reality and is there anything permanent in this world? This is what I decided to write my book about, taking the state of impermanence to the point of absurdity. Thanks to technological progress, there is a high chance that this absurdity will soon become everyday life.

What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

Prose has a great advantage over other forms of art – the ability to express the thoughts of the characters, as they say, directly from the skull. For example, in cinema, thoughts can only be expressed through actions or images, in fine arts – through form, in music – through melody. But all this is rather a consequence of thoughts and feelings that only writers can describe. In my book, I tried to imagine what a person thinks and feels when he doubts what reality is.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

There are many different themes in my book. The main character is trying to return to the past to correct his mistakes. They say it’s impossible. But is it? Perhaps the technologies of the future will help us, if not go into the past, then at least pull it by the ears to the present.

The second topic, related to the first, is the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. Finally, I tried to imagine what society will be like in the near future if its development continues in its current direction.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

It turns out that being a writer is hard work. Having written this book, I feel like a squeezed lemon. But new ideas are already brewing in my head, and I understand that until I give them free rein, they will get on my nerves. Therefore, I will write something new soon.

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