David the Poet wrote and told me he was reading an incredible Russian novel.  "What a novel this is," he said.  And because I admired that nice turn of phrase I ordered the book from Amazon.

It is The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Written as a satire during the Stalin years, and because of that unpublished for thirty years, the novel is about the arrival of the devil in Moscow and the mayhem that ensues.  There is also a storyline set in Jerusalem about Pontius Pilate meeting with Yeshua Ha-Nozri (sorta Jesus, but sorta not).  Apparently there is a third storyline, which I’ve not yet reached (I’m only a couple chapters in) about Margarita learning to fly.  Can’t wait for that one.

The reviews on Amazon refer to this novel as being life-changing, and everyone’s favorite novel ever, etc, etc.  Now I know we have to take reviews on Amazon with a huge dollop of salt but in this case I think the reviewers are writing truthfully.  There’s no reason to hype Bulgakov because he’s been dead since 1940.

My edition of the novel has good annotations and a nice afterword, but I thought I might want a bit more and I’ve found some great links.  There’s Wikipedia, of course, and I also found a great site called Master and Margarita.  Check it out here.  It’s worth it to go read the welcome page just for the romance of it all.