About the book: 2008 / Back in the 1920s, advising to transfer the action of his fantastic stories to Russia, A.M. Gorky suggested that Kaverin write something on the topics of common popular expressions, “for example: about the devil who broke his leg - remember: “The devil himself will break his leg.” Thanks to this Gorky “prompt,” the fairy tale “Many Good People and One Envious Man” was born: “One of its heroes wore an iron belt so as not to “burst with envy,” and the other so easily hit his neighbor “not in the eyebrow, but in the eyes” that we had to immediately call an ambulance. From fairy tales written at different times, the cycle “The Night Watchman, or Seven Entertaining Stories Told in the City of Nemukhin in the Unknown Year Nineteen Hundred” gradually emerged. Kaverin considered the fairy tale “The Nemukhin Musicians” to be the best in this fairy-tale cycle: “I came up with it in Yugoslavia, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, in Dubrovnik. The impression of this beautiful ancient fortress city was reflected in the fairy tale “The Flying Boy.” “I always wanted to write fairy tales,” admitted Veniamin Aleksandrovich, “and there was time for this... But I cannot tell you how fairy tales are written. Despite the apparent simplicity, very few master this art, and I am not sure that I belong to them.” The book includes the stories: Nemukhin Town, The Son of a Glazier, Nemukhin Musicians, Light Steps, Silvant, Many Good People and One Envious Man, Hourglass, Flying Boy.