This is a collection of light short prose from the famous Russian writer Victoria Tokareva. The book includes the autobiographical story “And life, and tears, and love...”, as well as four fascinating stories: “Relatives”, “Never”, “Stop, a moment...” and “How are you, Verukha?” Once upon a time, Victoria Tokareva - already accomplished writer - was invited to the program “The Fate of Man.” This fact and the very title of the program forced the author to plunge into memories and ask a number of not the most pleasant questions. Was her life a success or did everything go wrong? What has she achieved? What did she dream of that came true? What about success? Is this her merit or is everything written down in advance in the book of destinies?.. At the age of twenty, Victoria wanted to be published in the magazine “Youth”. And she succeeded: soon an article entitled “Wonderland” was published. What was the text about? Not that important. The article was published, and it was happiness. But how and how did the young writer herself live in those difficult days? Who was next to her and what were the fates of these people? No one can tell you about all this better than the author himself. “When you look at the sun for a long time, then you don’t see anything around you. Everything is discolored. So am I. She lived without seeing anything around her. What should you look at? I was saved by my family, who stood strong like a rock. I was saved by my unwritten books and my talent, although it is immodest to talk about it. Talent is like a baby: it screams, demands, it must be served, forgetting about oneself. My talent kept me afloat and said: “Nothing is over, everything will still be.” Victoria Tokareva