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.