Lyudmila Ulitskaya is a writer who needs no introduction. The author of the brilliant novels 'The Kukotsky Case,' 'Jacob's Ladder,' and 'The Green Tent' is a master of short fiction and presents readers with a collection of short stories, 'On the Body of the Soul.' The book consists of two cycles: the first contains stories about the astonishing power of love, which no circumstances—even death—has power over. The second cycle features characters who have experienced the precariousness and fragility of human existence, yet have not lost their ability to sensitively feel and empathize with the suffering of others. Balancing between these two worlds, Ulitskaya's characters sometimes resemble real people, who have real-life prototypes, and sometimes characters that are not entirely real and even fantastical—like, for example, the heroine of the story 'Aqua Allegoria,' who refuses to eat and gradually transforms into something between a butterfly and the scent of perfume. The first part of the book opens with a poem dedicated to Lyudmila Evgenievna's 'Amazons, girls, and old lady friends,' traces of whose presence we will find repeatedly throughout the pages of this collection. The second part is also preceded by a poem—even more unexpected, fractured, and frank. The writer infuses personal experiences and a wealth of life experience into the text with amazing precision and mastery, making her stories intimate yet accessible to any sensitive person.