Dino Buzzati (1906-1972) a classic of European literature of the twentieth century, prose writer, journalist, artist . His books have been translated into all the leading languages of the world, and based on many of them, including “The Mysteries of the Old Forest”, films have been made. "The Mystery of the Old Forest" was published in Italy in 1935, but has never been published in Russian, although readers in our country are well acquainted with the work of Buzzati and his books are popular with both adults and children. The novel is written in the form of a legend, in something allegorical and close to a parable. Reality and fiction in it are closely intertwined and almost inseparable from each other - it is no accident that Buzzati is often compared to Edgar Poe and Kafka. His style is stingy, concise, restrained, but at the same time unusually bright, internally tense and causes a strong emotional response from the reader. Translated by Olga Polyak