Galina Shcherbakova is one of the most widely published Russian prose writers. Her fiction became popular because of her ability to react quickly to the most urgent social problems of her time, such as teenage sexuality, the transformation of gender stereotypes, the disintegration of traditional family relationships, and the rapid growth of social aggression. Shcherbakova's gift as a writer lies in the ways in which she responds to these problems; she also makes them acceptable as topics for the broadest readership. Her short stories and novels, written in a clear and accessible manner, are entertaining for their use of plot and distinct in their use of witty and observant narratives from the perspective of an experienced, and tolerant to human weakness, woman.

Galina Nikolaevna Shcherbakova was born on 10 May 1932 in the small industrial town of Dzerzhinsk in Ukraine. Her mother, Valentina Fedorovna Stetsenko, a housewife, divorced Shcherbakova's father...