The autobiographical prose and essay book was written by Lyudmila Ulitskaya over the course of more than twenty years, alongside her works “Sonechka,” “The Case of Kukotsky,” “Daniel Stein…,” and “Green Canopy.” It’s all the more interesting to see how literature is forged from the “trash of life,” how it becomes “sacred” for the author, and how it becomes impossible to throw away anything—whether fragments and shards of the past, or thoughts, experience, knowledge, guesses, acquisitions, losses… This book is fearless in its frankness and trust. For the first time, Ulitskaya lets the reader into her world—not only through artistic images, but directly and trustingly—eye to eye.