In her novel ‘Fear and Obsessions,’ the narrative is nonlinear and multilayered, intertwining real and imagined reality. The protagonist, a writer from St. Petersburg, is traveling to an international conference. Her plane makes an emergency landing at an unknown airport. Unexpected twists and turns give birth to new literary characters in her imagination and evoke long-forgotten events from the depths of her memory. Fictional people become more real than the real ones: a professional historian who made a career as a civil servant; An unsuccessful actress, fervently dreaming of the title role, and even a fantastical knight and bishop—each with their own life, story, and unique opinions.