Nikola Tesla

He is recognized as a great inventor and one of the founders of modern electrical engineering, yet it is unlikely that only these achievements could have sparked such enormous interest in both his work and his personality. He earned millions, but died in poverty. He patented more than 800 inventions, yet people called him the “greatest charlatan” and a “genius madman.” He helped spark the invention of radio and the discovery of X-rays, but even today he is suspected of ties to the otherworld, called a “messenger from other civilizations,” and credited with extraordinary abilities—from mind-reading to vampirism. The “mystery of the Tunguska meteorite,” all-destroying “death rays,” climate weapons… Is there even a grain of truth in these legends? And who was the man called Nikola Tesla, who lived such a vivid and eccentric life that it could easily become the plot of not just one thrilling detective novel? In a book based on documentary materials and testimony from contemporaries, the real biography of the most enigmatic scientist in world history is meticulously reconstructed, unknown facts about his life are provided, and his actual—and mythical—discoveries are analyzed.