Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky

The inspiration behind Tarkovsky’s cult film “Stalker”. After a mysterious alien visitation, the “Zone” is cordoned off, filled with bizarre artifacts and lethal anomalies. Stalkers risk their lives to scavenge its treasures. Roadside Picnic is a dark, philosophical sci‑fi tale of greed, curiosity, and the consequences of contact with the unknown.

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those strange misfits who are compelled by some unknown force to venture illegally into the Zone and, in spite of the extreme danger, collect the mysterious artefacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the Zone and the thriving black market in the alien products. Even the nature of his daughter has been determined by the Zone.

And it is for her that Red makes his last, tragic foray into the hazardous and hostile depths. 

Paperback