Fairy tales are not for the faint of heart: they are either hit or miss. However, since childhood, we have been attracted to their world - not the same as ours, but no less real. This is a world of dangers, murders and betrayals, eternal sleep, fake brides, scary-beautiful miracles and talking donkeys. Forty stories from all over the world await readers under two twin covers. Updike, Keats, Petrushevskaya, Gaiman and others - these are modern storytellers. But they are not storytellers at all, but skilled masters of literature, which means that the more likely they are to lead readers into the scenery of words, where eternal stories will be embodied again. Are you scared? No problem. Creepy? All the better. Don't be afraid of the dark, you've grown up a long time ago. Although, perhaps, it only seems so to you.