Mikhail Bulgakov (15 May, 1891 – 10 March, 1940) was a Russian writer best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which was published posthumously.

The author captured the feeling of being a foreigner in a place which you intimately know very well. It is a feeling many of us get after visiting our childhood home town, after many years of absence.

Mr. Stengel makes an excellent case about the first part of his subtitle, but sadly the second part “what can we do about it” is not convincing. Mostly because of the government bureaucracies, slow moving administrative machinery, and simply the way democracies work.

The stories the author collected shattered many lives, not the least the childhood of the person telling. Several of them never recovered after their childhood ended abruptly, no matter what age they were.

Bel Kaufman (10 May, 1911 – 25 July, 2014) was an American author and educator known for her novel Up the Down Staircase (1964). More Books by Bel Kaufman* Ms. Kaufman, born as Bella, in Berlin, Germany to Russian immigrants. The family returned to Russia where her father became a physician and her mother wrote […]

About: Solovyov and Larionov by Eugene Vodolazkin (translated by Lisa C. Hayden) is a novel, translated from Russian, which is part military history, part academic satire.  This is the author’s first book, but his third translated into English. 368 pages Publisher: Oneworld Publications Language: English ISBN-10: 1786070359   My rating for Solovyov and Larionov – […]

About: Zuleikha by Guzel  Yakhina (translated by Lisa Hayden) is a novel about a Tartar widow who has been exiled to Siberia in the 1930s.  This book was the winner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award and the Russia Big Book literary prize, as well as being short listed for the Russian Booker Prize. 448 […]

About: Arale by Tristan Roulot (illustrated by Denis Rodier) is a graphic novel taking place in Russia, 1934 in which the Czar is mortally wounded and Rasputin concocts a mind transfer plan. This graphic novel was originally published in France. 66 pages Publisher: Europe Comics Language: English ASIN: B07N8C3CZK   My rating for Arale – […]

About: The Allies: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II by Winston Groom is a non-fiction book which recounts how Russia became and unlikely ally with the United States and England during World War II. Mr. Groom is a historian and novelist. 464 pages Publisher: National Geographic Language: English ISBN-10: […]

About: Four Soldiers by Hubert Mingarelli (translated by Sam Taylor) is a short novel taking about members of the Russian Army fighting the Russian Civil War in 1919. Mr. Mingarelli is a French writer, he won the Prix Medici prize in 2003 for this novel. 144 pages Publisher: The New Press Language: English ISBN-10: 1620974401 […]