About the book: 2015 / "I consider short memory to be one of the main vices - when people neglect the past, forget their debt of gratitude, and do not remember heroes. Forgotten hero is a phrase that puts a thorn in my heart.” On the pages of Boris Akunin's new book you will find poignant stories of ordinary heroes and entertaining tyrant studies, incredible destinies blown by the wind into history, famous and not so famous events that changed the fate of the world. Do the death of talent and the death of genius always coincide in time? Can a gifted person be above beauty, morality and decency? Is our world really what it seems to us: asphalt streets, fields, forests, internet, and telephones? Are there people left on planet Earth who don’t live like this – and most importantly, who absolutely don’t want to live like we do? And what kind of country is Russia, how to live in it and how to make it better? “...Well, tell me, how can you not love history?»