The apartment on the fourth floor on Gorky Street, 9, kept its secrets even before the Krechenskys moved in: that long-ago mysterious unsolved murder somehow affected the life of the new residents. Grandma Lida was sure a ghost had settled in the pantry, and high-school student Katya and her school friend Irka never missed a chance to go hunt for that apartment’s “unclean spirits” at night together. But that was just small stuff—because in the seventies, besides the ghost, there was also “pleasant human company” here: famous neighbors—Bondarchuk, Yefremov, Basov, and many other actors, directors, physicists, and other talents; nearby were central Moscow shops, and from the very farthest window of the apartment you could see the edge of the Historical Museum and a little of Red Square. Lenin himself peered into Katya’s room from a huge street poster across from her window, winking cleverly. An autobiographical novel by Robert Rozhdestvensky’s daughter that reveals to the reader a vivid, eventful family life full of adventures, books, love, school, a wedding, and a great tragedy.