Mikhail Bulgakov. Heart of a Dog. Diaboliad. Fatal Eggs. White Guard.

It's hard to name another Russian writer whose work is as autobiographical as Mikhail Bulgakov—a writer with a complex and bitter fate, one who endured the loss of his beloved former Russia, overcame the terrible disease of morphine addiction, an artist who resisted revolutionary demons and was drawn to the end of his days into a tragic conflict with a despotic regime. Bulgakov was a brilliant satirist whose favorite authors from a young age were Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin, a playwright who experienced both resounding fame and the bitterness of unfair accusations. Almost all of his work exemplifies Yevgeny Zamyatin's formula, "fantasy rooted in everyday life." A master of posing moral problems on a universal scale, Bulgakov set himself the task from the very beginning of writing engagingly—so that it would not only be interesting to read but also compelling to reread.