[Viv Groskop](/authors/OL7648401A) has discovered the meaning of life in Russian literature. As she knows from personal experience, everything that has ever happened in life has already happened in these novels: from not being sure what to do with your life ([*Anna Karenina*](/works/OL267096W)) to being in love with someone who doesn't love you back enough ([*A Month in the Country*](/works/OL16235055W) by [Turgenev](/authors/OL10240A)) or being socially anxious about your appearance (all of [Chekhov](/authors/OL3156833A)'s work). This is a literary self-help memoir, with examples from the author's own life that reflect the lessons of literature, only in a much less poetic way than [Tolstoy](/authors/OL26783A) probably intended, and with an emphasis on being excessively paranoid about having an emerging moustache on your upper lip, just like Natasha in [*War and Peace*](/works/OL267171W).

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