A compromise between life and death is possible when a talented literary monument is created, allowing the reader to get to know Sergei Dovlatov personally and closely, chat with him and read his letters, meet Alexei German, sit at the same table with Valery Zolotukhin and other outstanding people , with whom fate brought together the famous writer, poet and prose writer, finalist of the “Russian Booker”, laureate of the International “Russian Prize” and other literary awards, Elena Skulskaya. These memoirs are unique not only for their heroes: thanks to the author’s selflessness and humor, depth of understanding, absolute pitch and memory, which knows how to select the main thing, the book creates a unique portrait of the last third of the last century.