Chekhovian personalstories of despair and sorrow that will rip your heart out. Many stories of disillusionment of the end of the Soviet Union and the equality of communism; now with the rejection of gangsterism, oligarchy of the new regime. This is a big gulp of a book, full of human emotion. But in the end it is just regular people wanting to lead reasonably happy lives with their families under a reformed socialism and basic freedoms, not a police state, and grocery stores stocked with items that are affordable priced. They, like anyone, just want to live. I was greatly impacted by this book. Emotion, emotion, emotion. Basic human emotion.