Cut off from the Western modernity that he only knew from hearsay, Andrej Bitow reinvented the stream of consciousness for Russian literature in the early sixties. The unexpected freshness and boldness of this technique is evidenced in the novella "Taste," now translated into German for the first time: an impression akin to listening to old Coltrane records. Civil engineer Alexej Monachow, a melancholic average citizen, sits on a train from Leningrad to Moscow. The pulsating landscape outside the window, the feeling that his life will bring nothing new, that newness will never be, sudden inspirations, fleeting premonitions, all swept away like flotsam in the stream of consciousness – this is how the poor protagonist navigates the few days we spend with him: in the dacha area of Peredelkino, at Pasternak's grave, and at the funeral of an elderly relative.