Konstantin Paustovsky is an outstanding Russian writer, whose novels, novellas, short stories, and essays are rightfully considered classics of 20th-century Russian literature and have been translated into many languages. For Soviet readers, Paustovsky embodied human and literary nobility, the conscience of the era. He was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but only for political reasons did he not receive this prestigious award.

Paustovsky worked on 'A Story of a Life' for 18 years: it chronicles the writer's life, from childhood to the time he realized his literary success. Evgeny Grishkovets called 'A Story of a Life' one of the most important works written in Russian after World War II: 'It is impossible to put it down. And the delightful, magnificent, and boundlessly rich language in which it is written will remind you of the greatness of Russian literature.' This edition contains the fourth, fifth and sixth (final) books of 'The Tale of Life.'