"Childhood" is the first in a series of three novels and is followed by "Boyhood" and "Youth". Published when Tolstoy was just twenty-three years old, the book was an immediate success. "Childhood" is an exploration of the inner life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and one of the books in Russian writing to explore an expiressionistic style, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)