When Rock and Roll Was Green

The action of the novel begins in the late 1960s, when jazz and rock are still unofficially permitted. On the wave of Beatlemania, Leningrad students create a band called «Green Ants», play Western rock, and achieve success. The thaw gives way to stagnation, Russian rock begins to dominate, the influence of traditions and official prohibitions manifests itself in various spheres of life, and the guys choose compromise, adding popular songs by Soviet authors to their repertoire in those years. Studies, rehearsals, building brigades, tours. A carefree student life, colored by the love story of one of the heroes of the novel. Cholera-ridden Astrakhan and northern construction sites, Mangyshlak steppes and camps for difficult teenagers, resort seasons in Sochi and concerts at Leningrad universities – all of this and many, many songs create a vivid sketch of our recent past.