The article compares biographies and texts of two
modern icons, George Saunders and Victor Pelevin,
who managed to win the recognition of both prize
juries and a wide range of readers. One of the central
motifs of both authors is the afterlife (bardo), in which
the characters keep talking about their desires, exposing their traumas. This situation can be read indirectly, as an allegory of the current state of literature.