The present selection contains short stories by twelve young Estonian writers who began their literary careers in the mid-1960s. Their share in enriching our prose traditions is obvious, as is evidenced, among other things, by the fact that several of them have won the annual Friedebert Tuglas short story prize, includng Arvo Valton, Rein Saluri, Jaan Kruusvall, Teet Kallas, Mati Unt, Toomas Vint, Mari Saat and Jaak Jõerüüt. They are authors whose style varies widely despite their common need to seek out the meaning and significance of life and to find its optimal variant for contemporary man. Most of these writers have had some of their works published in translation.