“To my dear sister” - this is the inscription Faina Ranevskaya ordered to be stamped on the grave of Isabella Allen-Feldman. Separated in their youth (after the revolution, Faina remained in Russia, and Bella and her parents went abroad), the sisters met only 40 years later, when the lonely widowed Isabella decided to return to her homeland. And Ranevskaya had to use all her considerable connections (including the all-powerful Furtseva) so that her “white emigrant” sister would be allowed to stay in the USSR. Faina Georgievna not only registered Bella in her two-room apartment, but also devotedly took care of her until her death. It cannot be said that the sisters lived “harmoniously,” they were too different, and besides, Bella was a “Parisian”, absolutely incompatible with the Soviet reality, sometimes wildly infuriated Ranevskaya, but her sister was the only truly close, dear person for Faina Georgievna. Only with Bella could she throw off the eternal “clown” mask and be herself. No one knew such a Ranevskaya—vulnerable, homely, reaching for the family warmth that she always lacked so much—except for her “dear sister.” And the best monument to the brilliant actress was this book, full of unknown aphorisms, sad witticisms and bitter jokes of Ranevskaya, who only alone with her beloved sister could allow herself to “laugh through tears.”