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Fedorov is not a professional, but a real writer, with his original, established style, which is a rarity today. In the annotation he is attested as a Russian O'Henry. Well, O'Henry is not O'Henry, but the book "Realtor's Notes" has a clear relation to the tradition of capacious, concise, ironic prose. One can recall Zoshchenko and the same Hasek, whose adventures of Schweik are also inclined towards the genre of the short story. Vadim Fedorov writes briefly, clearly, to the point, which is also emphasized by the syntax of the text. In the stories that made up the collection, there are many sentences truncated, incomplete, following one after another: “He gained weight again. Smiling became less frequent. But the eyes were still glowing. We looked at the apartment. Sat down in the kitchen. Talk." The style chosen by the author does not irritate, as it corresponds to the content and tasks. The book consists of two parts. The first is the realtor's notes. It has long been known that the best material for a prose writer is his personal experience. And if a person has been engaged in real estate in the Czech Republic for many years, then where else can you get plots for essays? Vadim Fedorov in any story is attracted by the psychological side of the issue. Inspecting the dwellings, he tries to feel the atmosphere of the existence of his clients, perceives their way of life, foresees, if you like, fate. After all, the sale of an apartment is always associated with extraordinary circumstances. The buyer is usually happy, he is on the rise, he sees the future. The seller, as a rule, goes to this act under the pressure of difficulties, hardships and losses. Often the sale of property is associated with death. Memento mori! After the death of the 92-year-old old man, an archive remained, consisting of a description of his bike trips and correspondence with his beloved Martha, which, alas, did not reciprocate. Several decades - from pre-war times to 2013. Some postage stamps make it possible to trace the history of Europe. At first, Hitler flaunts on them. “Hitler disappeared from stamps in 1945. Athletes, cities, flowers appeared. Flashed Gagarin. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov…" The second part consisted of stories taken from life in the USSR and the Czech Republic. The stories are simple, clear, outwardly unpretentious, but psychologically tense, rich. In one of them (“Larisa”), the hero goes on a first date with a stranger, and instead of enjoyment, he receives a domestic shock: caresses are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a drunken ex-husband with a knife in his hands. In another (“Deprivation of Innocence”), friends, wanting to introduce the nerd Andrei to a man's life, bring him to a brothel, but this awkward attempt fails. However, not all stories are easy and cloudless: the short story "Sergey" describes a bloody showdown with Caucasians that happened because of a trifling accident. Outwardly, the prose of Vadim Fedorov may seem too artless. But any prose writer will attest that this artlessness is often damned difficult to achieve. Sergey Shaturin Literary newspaper, No. 32-33 (6609) 23-08-2017