The book by Natalia Leonidovna Trauberg (1928-2009) - the famous translator of G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse - is a collection of articles united by the experience of confronting totalitarianism and lack of spirituality. The essays included in the book are a lesson in free communication, sincere, sympathetic and interested. Among those the author talks about are Fr. Alexander Men, S.S. Averintsev, Thomas Venclova, Fr. Georgy Chistyakov and many others. From the author's preface:
"The book contains various articles and notes, in one form or another - reflections, but there are many more stories about what Pushkin called "strange rapprochements." When these stories appeared in magazines, they were invariably considered memoirs. I am afraid of memoirs for several reasons - the temptation of ruthlessness, the temptation of self-praise, a memory failure, and, finally, the fact that "we do not know the whole truth." I wanted not so much to share memories as to console and even please readers, reminding them of everyday, mundane miracles that show that we are not alone, and not in a meaningless world."