The late prose of Leonid Zorin (1924–2020) was written by a man who was over 90, but this is really prose, and not just the memoirs of a writer who has seen and experienced a lot, a famous playwright, whose plays adorn the theater stage to this day, but a wonderful The film “Pokrovsky Gate”, based on his script, remains beloved for many generations. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is intellectual prose, full of the most important questions - about the essence of man, about everyday life and holidays, about successes and failures, about the tricks of history, about love, about death, the approach and inevitability of which the author feels more and more keenly, that creates a special existential tension in the book. And of course, about creativity, and more specifically about writing, which, according to Zorin, is happiness, hard labor, and a mystery, which he never tires of unraveling, peering into himself, at his capabilities, at his insatiable creative dissatisfaction. In addition to short stories, the book also includes the very last notes selected by his son, which the author kept until the end of his days and which represent a special genre, aphoristic and extremely capacious, allowing you to feel the natural, like breathing, daily work of comprehending the ending life.