UDC 882-3BBK 84(2Rosu003dRus)6-44P58Foreword by Dmitry BykovDesign by Aida SidorenkoThe design of the book uses Tarif Basyrov’s painting “Midday I” (from the series “Inhabited Landscapes”), as well as a photographic portrait by Yuri Babkin

A dream similar to life: stories and stories / Valery Popov; [preface. D.L.Bykova]. - M.: PROZAIK, 2010. - 512 pp. ISBN 978-5-91631-059-7 In the stories and stories of the famous St. Petersburg prose writer Valery Popov, phantasmagoria and reality, thoughtfulness and carelessness, joy and suffering, smile and sadness coexist peacefully with each other , like neighbors on the landing. All of this is the facets of a single diamond called life; everything in it is valuable and inseparable. And if you understand the author’s attitude to the reality around us, and are able to see the unexpected and bright in hopeless people and situations, then life will cease to seem like a difficult and hopeless dream. The book of selected prose by Valery Popov includes both new and well-known works to readers. But what they all have in common is a huge, youthfully insatiable love for life in all its manifestations. And it is no coincidence that the new story that opens the collection is called “Let’s Draw” - it “rhymes” with the optimistic “We will live!”.© V.G. Popov, 2010© D.L. Bykov, preface, 2010© Design. CJSC "PROZAIK", 2010