Old Valam

“Old Balaam” by Ivan Shmelova is a bright, poetic and deeply spiritual work that has become a real monument of the holy island residence. This is a penetrated record of the writer’s youth pilgrimage on the northern holy island of Balaam, filled with quiet joy, peacefulness and light. The story immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the end of the 19th century. The young author, along with his young wife, travels on a steering road along the Lagos Lake to the ancient Balaam Monastery. Before the view of the traveler is revealed a harsh and great northern nature: granite rocks, century forests, quiet Lagos waters and among them - a magnificent monastery ensemble. With a special love and filigranic accuracy, Shmelov describes the monastery order, the strict life and the prayer of the others, the work of the craftsmen, the spiritual simplicity of the gods and the amazing sense of inner harmony, filling everyone who steps on this blessed land. Shmelev creates a surprisingly picturesque plate where the Orthodoxy is shown not as a strict formality, but as a living, joyful and creative force. "Old Balaam" is a book-trust that gives the soul peace, bright nostalgia and a sense of the irreversible beauty of the spiritual world. **About what the book is in three words:** Palamity, Holiness, Peace. **Who to read:** To the lovers of the Russian spiritual proza, to the lovers of picturesque descriptions of nature and travel, to the lovers of the creativity of Ivan Schmelyev and to all who are looking for silence, soul peace and light in literature.