The Impregnable Offer: An excerpt from a book by co-author Guillermo del Toro

The novel entered the top ten last year according to The New York Times. Kraus, known not only for his literary work, but also for his collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro, chose an unusual form of narration: the entire work is written in one sentence. The action takes place in the trenches of the First World War. Amidst the chaos of the battle, the soldiers discover a downed angel, a creature that may be able to stop the war. This fantastic plot becomes an excuse to explore human nature in an environment where death seems more familiar than hope. In early November, the book will be published in Russian for the first time by AST publishing house. A fragment of the novel "The Downed Angel" is published by Izvestia.

Daniel Kraus "Downed Angel", fragment:

XVI

and Bagger once drifted into the cinema, nine chairs crammed into a van were showing "My Creepy Face," a gray-toned play made up of rapidly changing frames, a gaudily tasteless melodrama that was played out on the wall by flattened lilliputian actors, and then some guy started talking about everything.Ada was touting a burn ointment called "Mr. Stick's Suffradine," and all this intrigued Bagger, he was always looking for new tricks to charm suckers with, and it's really sad that he hasn't been able to attend another session until now.,

and the current film is shown inside his skull, "Private Bagger goes to war," set in Davenport, Iowa, in May 1915, our hero is twenty-two, he reads an article in the Des Moines Journal called "Many women and children among the dead on the Lusitania," and there, below the subtitle "A Thousand Victims,"The Bishop Bernard Bagger sank in the Celtic Sea when a German submarine, which took part in the Reichstag blockade, torpedoed a British liner, for which the bishop bought a ticket in the desperate hope that preaching to the soldiers of the Entente could restore his faith in a just Lord.,

and it seems unimaginable that just ten days ago, a Bagger in patent leather brogues and fringed kilty tongues, in long plaid socks that went so well with shoes, sauntered into the old church, now closed, and went up to the windswept apartment upstairs, which will also be closed soon.about where he grew up with his Spartan father and his father's memories of Bagger's mother, about whom the old man said that she had golden hair, chubby cheeks and a soul like a lamb,

and Bagger was called to escort his father to the Twenty Century Limited express, which was supposed to take him to the Cunard wharf in Manhattan, where from the stands there was a view of the White Star wharf, prepared a year earlier for the Titanic, yes, coincidentally, coincidentally, and then the bishop was going to rise. board the cruiser Lusitania and disembark in Liverpool,

and how frivolously Bagger behaved, chewing ice, calling the ship "Lucy", as befits an impudent man, and asking: "Why not stay at the Biltmore, Dad?"—although Bishop Bagger wouldn't trade the shabbiest flophouse in New York for anything else, he didn't want a comfortable cabin on the Lusitania either, just a bunk on the third-class deck, and the old man's disappointed look turned Bagger sour, rightAs usual, his father considered him an empty-headed dandy, no matter how hard he tried to keep his face in the dirt.,

​and that's probably why Bagger lost his temper, spat ice into the fireplace and gave a tirade that it was time for the old fool to come down from heaven to earth, the only thing the United States cared about in connection with the war in Europe was money, despicable metal, if the Entente disappears, the day will disappear.The money used to pay for our goods, Bagger read it in some newspaper, and to top it all off, he told his father that he was running because he had been defeated, his church had collapsed, his faith was gone.: "You're looking for a meaning that will save you!" he shouted, to which the bishop very mournfully asked: "Aren't you?",

and it was a mean blow, Bagger got up, about to leave, but the bishop raised his hand, bony fingers encased in crepe, aged a thousand in ten years, and asked with a tenderness that Bagger had already forgotten was possible, if he wanted to go with him, to the third-class deck not yet inHer tickets are sold out, and the Lucy is, after all, the fastest and most luxurious liner in the world, a detail he added on purpose to tempt his cowardly son.,

and Bagger's resolve wavered, and if you say yes, just say yes, get on a train, board a ship, leave behind remorse for being a child who killed his kind—hearted mother at birth, leave behind a shameful way to make a living by deceiving people, what can you say aboutthat on board a ship like the Lusitania, everything should be awesome in terms of gambling, however, he could completely forget about gambling, he could just stand next to his father on the deck, just see the meaning in the sun, the expanse of water and gold braid at the meeting point of the two elements.,

And if Bagger had died trying to save him,

And if they had drowned, clutching each other in their arms,

And when the Magazine confirmed that only one man named Bagger had drowned, Cyril thought: Well, old man, that's the answer to your question, either accept it or whine, and he also had business at the casino, because even though he knew a lot of guys for whom killing their father would be a sign to volunteer to go to war with the Krauts, he had already spent half his life on suicide missions.Thank you, dear daddy, and damn Bagger if he spends the other half.,

and what he would never admit to anyone was that that day, before polishing his brogues and going to work, he picked up a red-covered Bible, the only thing his father had shoved into his hands before Bagger left the apartment, and took a deep breath of the air trapped between the pages in a safeto smell the forgotten days of childhood, something good, paper, glue, charcoal, milk, chocolate, leather, fur, grass,

And it was the same Bible over which the bishop had preached every Sunday of Bagger's youth, the leather cover darkened with old sweat, all the gilding worn off the gold corners, the silk bookmark frayed and looked like a snake's tongue, the only object that Bagger had ever considered sacred, because nothing else could make the bishop lower his head.I'm on my knees,

and how many times did this happen: while the flakes of paint on the peeling walls of the apartment were fluttering from the vibrations produced by the organist below, like the wings of a fly of shame, Cyril tried to pull his father out of the whirlpool of thoughts, literally pull him out by the sleeve, but the bishop with gentle relentlessness extricated himself from his son's fingers and handed him the Bible, like the sisters from theThe Golden Cross is given to the person who is about to be amputated, a rag to squeeze in his teeth, as if this book contained all the answers to all the questions, he should just let it drive him crazy.,

And because there were too many words in the Bible, a little Instead, Cyril looked at the pictures inserted in the center of the book, reproductions of famous canvases depicting all the heroes, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Esther, Jesus, Judas, the two Marys, and how he liked these portraits, as if they were a large, eccentric family that Bagger had never had,

and he doesn't need such a family anymore, after "Lusitania" the most interesting part of the Private tape began. Bagger goes to war", no more obligations to his father, which opened up for him the opportunity to freely tour Mississippi with its abundance of wine (drank), women (had) and trash (participated), and when President Wilson, elected under the slogan "He kept us from going to war," declareSpeaking of joining the war, Bagger made airplanes out of patriotic leaflets that dotted the streets, and laughed heartily at the simpletons who were in a hurry to enlist.,

and it began to seem to him that draft evasion was something like a vaudeville dance act, look at Cyril Bagger on stage, maybe his point was to make no sense, to be one of those play—goers with whom decent people like to compare themselves, it's a special purpose.Yep, there are no heroes without villains.,

and so he hid behind the skirts of the women's pacifist movement, which, to his great joy, included a full complement of curvy beauties who fully shared his aspirations, until Wilson ruined this with his Espionage Law, however, Bagger could have gotten out of it if the recruiting officer hadn't caught him in one of the brothels. Des Moines drunk and with a card-cutting device in his pocket,

And then old Bagger's song was sung, they dipped him into a watering trough to sober up, and escorted him to a recruitment center, where they forced him to fill out a form for military service, threatening prison, and he was at the last once he tried to get away with making a lot of mistakes in the hope that he would be considered mentally retarded, even scribbled "VAI" at the top of the form.ABSOLUTELY," but no one bought it, and that's how, in a way, sadly, the "Private" ends. Bagger goes to war" — sending our hero to the American Expeditionary Force on August 10, 1917,