The Tale of Life. Books I–III

Konstantin Paustovsky is an outstanding Russian writer, whose novels, stories, and essays are rightly considered classics of 20th-century national literature and have been translated into many languages of the world. He is the author of remarkable lyrical-autobiographical prose, filled with love for Russian nature and Russian culture. For Soviet readers, Paustovsky is the embodiment of human and literary nobility, the conscience of the era. He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and only for political reasons did not receive this honorary award. Paustovsky worked on 'The Tale of Life', one of his main works, for 18 years. According to Konstantin Kedrov, 'in the early chapters of 'The Tale of Life', Bunin predicted the revival of Russian literature'. Before us unfolds the life of the writer—from childhood to the time when he realizes his literary success. Autobiographical elements and intimate-personal experiences are here combined with historical and universally significant reflections on the past and the present day. This edition publishes the first three of the six books of 'The Tale of Life'.