The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

As I was reading this novel, three people told me either that it's their favourite novel or that it's the favourite novel of a friend. In each case the devotee was a woman, to which I attach no particular significance.

Its a romp of a book written and set in Stalin's Moscow, with interludes in Pontius Pilate's Jerusalem. A charming and entertaining Satan stalks through both worlds, usually in the company of a motley band of cronies, including a giant tomcat. Atrocities are committed, human foibles are exposed and love conquers all...kind of.

Had I not known otherwise I could have taken Bulgakov as a contemporary of Rushdie, Kundera and Marquez such is the "magical realist" mood of the novel.

(Incidentally, I picked up a copy from the ace "Penguin Red" range of classics. Excellent translation, nicely produced object, only $9.95 in Australia. They are real bargains.)