Poignant stories about the amazing and difficult destinies of people scattered all over the world. Details of complex, controversial and often unique biographies, written by the precise and capacious pen of a thoughtful observer, who, together with an ingenuous and at the same time deep description and unobtrusive analysis, leaves the reader an opportunity to sum up and form an opinion about the harsh reality of human existence. The book is a kind of encyclopedia of the life experience of a large number of people who, either by their own will or by the will of fate that drives history, fell into the millstones, grinding or leaving a quiet corner for reflection. Talent in depiction and reconstruction realities, generalities and particulars, subtle observation, picturesque details in the transfer of sophisticated events and trifles. With lively descriptions of modern reality and almost unknown facts - historical truth first-hand from real witnesses, details of the unpleasant pages of life in exile and existence in concentration camps or under the heel of the power of the Soviet or Nazi regimes. The narration seems to come from the perspective of an outside observer, but the vision, each time sharply catching, resembles the look of a camera from above, recording and not giving unnecessary comments, but forcing one to think and empathize. The events of the stories take place in ports, seas and oceans, in different corners and cities Russia, the Baltic countries, Germany, Canada, America, Tatarstan, Czechoslovakia, India, Africa, Switzerland, the Andaman and Canary Islands. The characters in this play called “Life” are many unpredictable people, from a submarine captain, a journalist, a farmer , a German chief lieutenant - to terrorists and, in general, women and men with a complex and interesting fate.