The cycle of works under the general title “Taste of Life” consists of six books, which are a continuation of one theme. The first two-volume book, “The Taste of Life,” is about how friends met forty years after graduating from university. Half of them are former orphanages from the war and post-war years. Each one talks about something very important in their long, interesting, but difficult life. They remember their childhood, students, youth and talk about how they are trying to integrate into the new reality - post-perestroika Russia. All books in the series can be read as separate books, unrelated to each other. But for a better understanding of the author’s ideas, it is recommended to first read the book “Hope,” which tells the story of her childhood.