The Master and Margarita (Macmillan Collector's Library)

A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita is considered a masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian literature. Part of the Macmillan Collectors Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan OConnor, and features an introduction by Orlando Figes. In Mikhail Bulgakov's imaginative extravaganza, Satan, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow in the 1930s with his riotous band, which includes a talking cat and an expert assassin. This visit has several aims, one of which concerns the fate of the Master, an author who has written a novel about Pontius Pilate and is now in a mental hospital. By turns satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, The Master and Margarita constantly surprises and entertains as the action switches back and forth between twentieth-century Moscow and first-century Jerusalem.