The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

The underground masterpiece of twentieth-century
Russian fiction, this classic novel was written during Stalin's
regime and could not be published until many years after its author's death.

When
the devil arrives in 1930s Moscow, consorting with a retinue of odd associates-including
a talking black cat, an assassin, and a beautiful naked witch-his antics wreak havoc
among the literary elite of the world capital of atheism. Meanwhile, the Master,
author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in despair
in a pyschiatric hospital, while his devoted lover, Margarita, decides to sell her
soul to save him. As Bulgakov's dazzlingly exuberant narrative weaves back and forth
between Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, studded with scenes ranging from a giddy Satanic
ball to the murder of Judas in Gethsemane, Margarita's enduring love for the Master
joins the strands of plot across space and time.