Writer, poet and social activist Grace Paley (1922–2007) is considered one of the best storytellers in American literature. Her stories deal with the hardships of assimilation, the split between parents who remained in the “backward” Bronx and children who left in the bohemian Greenwich Village, about the ups and downs of the lives of ordinary women in their everyday life. Her prose is distinguished by the rare precision of dialogue, spare and at the same time rich. Reading her stories, funny and wise, harsh and compassionate at the same time, is very exciting. Translation: Maria Kahn, Vera Prorokova