"My Calendar" by Boris Akunin, summary Automatic translate

This book is an author’s diary-almanac, published in 2024, where each day is tied to a specific historical or fictional event. The author deliberately equalized all the months, giving each thirty-one days. This was done to harmoniously fit into the narrative non-existent dates like February 30th or June 31st.

January and February Stories

The new year opens with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The entry calls on everyone to find inner freedom. The author recalls Isaac Asimov, John Tolkien, and Umberto Eco, who wrote his famous detective story purely for fun. Boris Akunin suggests setting aside at least an hour a day for personal hobbies. Such an activity can one day grow into something greater. Sadako Sasaki and her paper cranes are mentioned, as is Elisabeth Sirani, who challenged the male-dominated world of painting. The reader learns about Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon and Charles Perrault’s tales of Little Red Riding Hood. The writer praises Émile Zola for his open letter in defense of Alfred Dreyfus. Words of gratitude are expressed to Jimmy Wales, the creator of the online encyclopedia. January ends with Ham Day, the day of the American chimpanzee-astronaut.

February greets the reader with thirteen days missing during the transition to the New Calendar. These days promise a chance for the fulfillment of the unfulfilled. The Mauthausen concentration camp uprising and the launch of a social network by Harvard students are mentioned. Boris Akunin writes about the Marquis de Sévigné and Saint Isidore, the patron saint of programmers. The author recalls the death of Alexander Pushkin in a duel and the murder of Alexander Griboyedov by Persian fanatics. The day of Dmitri Mendeleev’s creation of the water-alcohol formula is celebrated. On a leap day, the composer Gioachino Rossini gives up opera to pursue cooking. On a non-existent February 30th, Atlantis is destroyed. February 31st is declared a black hole, when it is safer to lie under the covers.

March and April Chronicles

Spring begins with the ancient tradition of the March New Year. The author writes about the deliverance from tyrants, using the deaths of Nicholas I and Joseph Stalin as examples. The Japanese girls’ festival Hinamatsuri is mentioned, as is the day Vasily Trediakovsky invented the first clumsy verses. Artist Boris Kustodiev paints cheerful merchant canvases despite his own serious illness and the raging civil war.

The author then tells of Raymonde de Laroche, the first female aviator. The introduction of the Barbie doll sets new standards for girls’ appearance. Alexander Bell is mentioned with his first phone call to his assistant, as is the Chinese inventor of paper, Tsai Lun. The writer condemns the assassination of Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), which led to a series of national disasters. The month ends with Cherry Blossom Day, when the contemplation of beauty takes center stage.

April begins with a day dedicated to intelligent women, with Clementine Churchill serving as a shining example. The author recounts Hans Christian Andersen, who stayed with Charles Dickens for five weeks. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novella about the little prince, published amidst the bloodshed, is mentioned. This is followed by reflections on the right to wear a beard and Charles Fourier’s communes.

In mid-spring, memories of the British engineer Isambard Brunel and Queen Anne, who legalized copyright, come to mind. Alexander I founded the Secret Committee. This initiative gave society hope for beneficial reforms. The author writes about recording the first rock ’n’ roll album and the South Korean Black Day for lonely hearts. April ends with reflections on the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and the birthday of Immanuel Kant, who stopped being ill through sheer force of will.

May and June stories

May opens with the gallant French Lily of the Valley Day. Boris Akunin writes about the power of Catherine the Great’s gentle rule and the calculating cynicism of Niccolò Machiavelli. Leo Tolstoy comes to mind, seeing a burdock bush and inventing the story of Hadji Murat. A day of bravery and the philosopher Socrates’s cool fearlessness in the face of execution by hemlock is celebrated.

The author reflects on Antoine Lavoisier, whose clever head was chopped off by French revolutionaries. Songs by Bulat Okudzhava are heard, and Countess Molokhovets, who gave the people a cookbook, is celebrated. Florence Nightingale, who created a system of compassionate care for the sick, is recalled. Cardinal Richelieu orders knives to be sharpened, saving feasts from stabbings. The month ends on the day of the death of the evil Duchess Krumhilda, when it is permissible to vent one’s anger on others.

June begins with reflections on the murder of the Nepalese royal family and the enigmatic Count Cagliostro. The author writes about the English King Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne for the love of a divorced American woman. The Montgolfier brothers, who launched a hot-air balloon, are recalled. Ray Bradbury leaves humanity with his fantastical warnings about Martian colonies. The birthdays of Alexander Pushkin and Pyotr Chaadayev are celebrated.

Summer continues with the day of Albinoni’s false musical masterpiece and the escape of three convicts from Alcatraz. Boris Akunin writes about the appearance of the first newspaper fakes about the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo. The Bavarian monarch Ludwig, who drowned in a shallow lake under dubious circumstances, comes to mind. June ends on the thirty-first, when detective Erast Fandorin and nun Pelagia nearly meet on a train platform. They miss their destiny.

July and August motifs

The July heat begins with the absurd death of Allan Pinkerton, who bit his tongue in a fall. The writer reflects on the fateful twenty-seventh birthday that took the life of lead singer Jim Morrison. Alice Liddell, who forced the storyteller to write down the story of the rabbit hole, comes to mind. The author writes about the Japanese festival of Tanabata and the belated posthumous success of Alexander Grin.

The story then recounts the heroic deed of Lady Godiva, who rode naked through the streets of Coventry to abolish taxes. Akunin recounts the Zen philosopher Daisetsu Suzuki and the publication of the opposition journal "Kolokol" (The Bell) by Alexander Herzen. The Crusaders’ capture of Jerusalem and Napoleon Bonaparte’s surrender to the British aboard the Bellerophon are recalled. The end of the month is dedicated to the death of the real d’Artagnan during the siege of the fortress and the suicide of Vincent van Gogh. The writer mentions the triumph of Daniel Defoe, who was pelted with flowers by a London crowd at the pillory.

August begins with the story of the Japanese sisters Kinsan and Ginsan, who lived together for 107 years. The short war report of Gaius Julius Caesar and the departure of Christopher Columbus’s caravels are mentioned. The writer writes about the women’s peace treaty signed by Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy. Alexander Radishchev, sentenced to death for a seditious book, comes to mind.

The author reflects on the devastating Chinese Cultural Revolution. The foundation stone of the leaning Tower of Pisa is mentioned. He recounts the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan and Ronald Reagan’s unfortunate joke about bombing Soviet territory. He recalls the Japanese ghost festival of O-Bon and the peaceful death of artist William Blake. In August, he tells the story of Geronimo, an alpaca stricken with tuberculosis, for whose life almost all of Great Britain fought unsuccessfully.

September and October Reflections

September opens with the death of King Louis XIV and the capitulation of the Japanese Empire. The author recounts the tiny mountain state of San Marino and the early death of rock singer Yanka Diaghileva. Nicholas II’s fatal decision to lead the army, which led to the country’s collapse, is recalled. There is regret over the renaming of St. Petersburg and the destruction of military toys.

The writer writes about Queen Elizabeth II and the signing of the Treaty of Nystad. He mentions Anna Snitkina, who became Fyodor Dostoevsky’s guardian angel. He recounts the creation of the sparkling champagne Dom Pérignon and the destruction of an art exhibition by bulldozers. The month ends on September 31st. This date is reserved for whining and self-pity, as the sailors force Christopher Columbus to turn his ships around.

October begins with the Feast of the Elderly. The author writes about Francis of Assisi and the French singer Marie Laforêt, who lost her mind in her old age. Heinrich Himmler and the architect Alexei Shchusev, who built the granite mausoleum, are recalled. The author discusses Bald Men’s Day, the Day of the Lazy Sluggard, and Bosses’ Day. The fate of the Chinese Emperor Puyi, whom the new authorities rehabilitated into a simple gardener, is mentioned.

Akunin writes about the French space cat Félicette. Arthur Rimbaud, who stopped writing poetry at eighteen, and the Coreys, who shared the Nobel Prize in biochemistry, come to mind. He recounts the stock exchange incident that triggered the Great Depression. October ends with the October 17th Manifesto, which granted a brief illusion of civil liberties, and the Spanish Day of the Innocents.

November and December results

November greets the reader with the Mexican Day of the Dead. The author writes about Peter the Great and the good-natured graphomaniac Dmitry Khvostov. The Cheka assassination of British spy Sidney Reilly in Sokolniki Park comes to mind. The author recounts the victory of the French revolutionaries at Jemappes and the heroic Mexican engineer Jesús García Corona, who diverted a burning train loaded with dynamite away from the city.

Margaret Mitchell, who wrote her bestseller out of boredom, and the fall of the Berlin Wall are mentioned. Boris Akunin writes about the reserved meeting between Stanley and Livingstone, the diary of Maria Bashkirtseva, and the Japanese festival of children’s growth. November ends with François Voltaire’s Day of Freethinking and Stanislav Kurilov’s leap into the ocean from a Soviet steamship. November 31st is set aside for the edict of the Byzantine Emperor Constans, who forbade people from loving each other.

December begins with the legend of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich and the suicide of the writer Romain Gary, who was afraid of old age. The author writes about the end of the Cold War and letters to the Finnish Father Frost. The ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, who lived through a period of bloody upheaval, comes to mind. Akunin writes about St. George’s Day, when peasants were given the opportunity to leave their masters.

The death of Charles XII from a stray bullet and the moral strength of Academician Andrei Sakharov are mentioned. The writer reflects on Lazar Zamenhof, the creator of the Esperanto language. The tragic death of Osip Mandelstam in a transit camp and the courage of his wife Nadezhda are recalled. December ends with a story about the Christmas Truce on the Western Front. The book concludes with a call to gratitude for all the joyful moments of the past year and to renew our resolve for new achievements.