It is a pseudo-autobiographical postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist Venedikt Erofeev. Written between 1969 and 1970 this book was passed around in samizdat for a long time. The story follows an alcoholic intellectual, Venya (or Venichka), as he travels by a suburban train on a 125 km (78 mi) journey from Moscow to visit his beautiful beloved and child in Petushki, a city that is described by the narrator in almost utopian terms.