The Telegraph journalist and professional comedian Viv Groskop, during a difficult period in her life, found not only solace in the great Russian novels, but also soul-searching advice that helped her get out of a difficult situation - and decided to describe this experience. In “Self-Development According to Tolstoy,” she uses her own example and the destinies of Russian classics to show that even the most difficult situation can be found with the help of literature: “Anna Karenina” alleviates an identity crisis, Turgenev’s play “A Month in the Country” helps to survive unhappy love, and “The Master and Margarita” - to cope with the most difficult circumstances. Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anna Akhmatova, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol and others in the book Groskop are not bronze monuments, but living people who also suffered and doubted, they were overwhelmed by thousands of passions, but they managed to maintain their dignity and remained themselves. “Self-development according to Tolstoy” is an entertaining attempt to look from the outside at plots familiar to every Russian-speaking reader from school, and to understand why we love the words “soul” and “fate” so much.