Notes on a Cuff

Darkly humorous short fiction set in the early years of the Soviet Union, by the author of The Master and Margarita.

 


A collection of comic, self-aware, and stylistically dazzling short stories touching on such familiar territory for many Russian authors as disease, famine, civil war, and political turmoil, Notes on a Cuff and Other Stories showcases the style that Mikhail Bulgakov would be known for during the literary and theatrical renaissance of 1920s Moscow and beyond.


 


Written between 1920 and 1921 while Bulgakov was employed as a doctor in a rural hospital in the Caucasus region, Notes on a Cuff presents a series of first-person comedic sketches centered on a young writer (Bulgakov's semiautobiographical proxy) fighting to launch his literary career despite great personal and political odds.


 


"A very good place to start on Bulgakov if you haven't read any of his work before."—The Guardian