Recommendations from our site
“I defy anyone to read those opening pages…and not have it slightly get under their skin and haunt them…I believe that there’s been a lot of dispute about whether Mikhail Bulgakov was writing against Soviet atheism or in favour of it, against religion or in favour of it. Like all great art, it’s shot through with ambivalence. But I don’t think he could ever have written this other than through the collision of the creative impulse and the soulless worldview of Soviet communism. I just don’t think it would have been created other than through that rather disfiguring collision between creativity and conformity. And, for that reason alone, I just think it’s an astonishing book.” Read more...
Nick Clegg on his Favourite Books
Nick Clegg, Politician
“The Master and Margarita is brilliant, not only for its interweaving of past and present and linking of different timelines with the Pontius Pilate story, but also the complexity of the relationship between good and evil in it. You really feel for the evil characters — you find yourself backing them completely in their worst actions. The Rolling Stones song ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ was heavily inspired by The Master and Margarita. It’s a beautiful commentary and reflection on questions like ‘what are we doing in our lives, why are we here?'” Read more...
The best books on Surrealism and the Brain
Bradley Voytek, Medical Scientist
“It’s all about compassion for yourself, for others and really how ultimately that’s all that matters.” Read more...
The best books on The Miracle of Autism
Rupert Isaacson, Novelist
“The Master and Margarita is the most mystical and mysterious way of describing the primitive and base sort of simplification of society under the Soviets.” Read more...
Nigar Hasan-Zadeh, Poet
