Роман Л.Лагина "Голубой человек" построен на фантастической основе: наш современник - молодой рабочий, студент-заочник - неожиданно оказался в Москве 1894 года, где и разворачиваются дальнейшие события романа. Литературный прием помогает автору развернуть картины дореволюционного рабочего быта и подчеркнуть поистине великие достижения советского строя.
Lazar Yosifovych Lagin (Лазарь Иосифович Лагин) was the pen name of Lazar Ginzburg (4 December 1903, Vitebsk – 4 June 1979, Moscow). He was a Soviet author of children's and science fiction books.
Lagin is best known for his book Starik Hottabych (Старик Хоттабыч, Old Man Hottabych, 1937), a fairy tale telling the story of a genie who is freed from captivity by a Soviet schoolboy. The genie, as is to be expected, has some trouble in adapting to modern life values and technological development.
Lagin's science fiction novels are set in imaginary Western "Capitalist" countries and satirize misuse of scientific inventions in bourgeois society. His novella Major Well Andyou (Майор Велл Эндъю) is a satiric sequel to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.
Lagin was also a screenplay writer, producing, for instance, the screenplay for the 1967 animation film Passion of Spies.