The new edition of the book “Ali and Nino” in Russian is dedicated to two memorable dates: the 75th anniversary of the author of the Russian version of the novel, Mirza Agha Huseynzade, and the 20th anniversary of the book’s publication. The history of the creation of the translation “Ali and Nino” is full of different stories. Here is how M. Huseynzade wrote about it in the preface to the book in 2003: “The translation of “Ali and Nino” into Azerbaijani language first appeared in the January book of the “Azerbaijan” magazine for 1990, that is, during the period when everything that was described in the novel almost seventy years ago was happening in the country. Then, too, the Red Army surrounded Baku and was waiting for a command from Moscow to enter the city…
The personality of Kurban Said is as mysterious as his books. The real name of the author hiding behind this pseudonym is still controversial. The history of the novel “Ali and Nino” is no less dark: published in 1937, the book was firmly forgotten until 1970, when, after simultaneous publication in America and England, its characters triumphantly returned to bookstore shelves to become the most popular lovers of the twentieth century. Today the novel has been translated into thirty-three languages, plays have been staged based on it, films have been made, and a monument to its heroes has been erected in Batumi. The story about the love of a Muslim Ali and a Christian Nino against the backdrop of the turbulent events of history will not leave any reader indifferent.