Sergei Zhadan was one of the few who grasped our era like a tiger by the tail, saw the funny in its sorrows and the tragic in its joys, described its uniqueness. 'Time moves under your skin,' says Zhadan, 'and if you have thin skin, you can even see it.' And so the managers gather after a hard day at the bar, fat, heavy and inactive middle managers, hustle in the bar like seals, beat with flippers and make sharp shrill sounds, shout over jukeboxes, trample around near karaoke, rush, slapping the floor with their flippers , in the toilet. Ho-ho, they say to each other how good it is that we are all here today, we are middle managers, we always have something to talk about after a busy day, come on, friends, they say to each other, what will we talk about today? About rugby or women?