Katayev Valentin. A Mosaic of Life or The Magic Horn of Oberon. Memoirs of Russian Childhood

London, Melburn: Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1976. - 447 c.
Translated by Moira Budberg and Gordon Latta.
The book was published in Russian in 1972 under the title "Broken Life or Oberon's Magic Horn."
600dpi file.These recollections of turn-of-the-century Russia by the distinguished author of Squaring the Circle, The Grass of Oblivion and many other works, are an enchanting experience, evoking with rare charm and humor a world that is now lost and was even then in the process of change. This is history in its most readable and enjoyable form. In a letter to his granddaughter at the beginning of the book, Katayev writes:
I will try to concentrate on my memories in exactly the way that Tolstoy advised: in no particular order, just as they come, as I remember them, never forgetting, however, that art does not tolerate self-consciousness. From now on, may I be inspired by imagination and feeling.