Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Julie Lekstrom Himes

Mikhail and Margarita

Cover: Mikhail and Margarita - Julie Lekstrom Himes

Julie Lekstrom Himes

Mikhail and Margarita

2017, pp. 336, e-Book
ISBN: 9781787700222
Region: United States
Paper Paper Paper
£ 9.99
Where to buy Where to buy Where to buy

The book

A love triangle involving Mikhail Bulgakov, an agent of Stalin’s secret police, and the bewitching Margarita, and its inescapable consequences.

It is 1933 and Mikhail Bulgakov’s enviable career is on the brink of being dismantled. His friend and mentor, the poet Osip Mandelstam, has been arrested, tortured, and sent into exile. Meanwhile, a mysterious agent of the secret police has developed a growing obsession with exposing Bulgakov as an enemy of the state. To make matters worse, Bulgakov has fallen in love with the dangerously outspoken Margarita. Facing imminent arrest, infatuated with Margarita, he is inspired to write his masterpiece.

Ranging between lively readings in the homes of Moscow’s literary elite to the Siberian Gulag, Mikhail and Margarita recounts a passionate love triangle while painting a portrait of a country with a towering literary tradition confronting a dictatorship that does not tolerate dissent. Margarita is a strong, idealistic woman, who is fiercely loved by two very different men, both of whom will fail in their attempts to shield her from the machinations of a regime hungry for human sacrifice. Himes launches a rousing defence of art and the artist during a time of systematic deception and she movingly portrays the ineluctable consequences of love for one of history’s most enigmatic literary figures.

PRAISE:

Mikhail and Margarita renders with astonishing authority and grace not only the oppressive monstrousness of the Soviet regime...but also the intensity and beauty of the love at the novel’s center, a love that’s all the more heartening because it’s generated by figures with such spectacular flaws.”—Jim Shepard

“In Mikhail and Margarita, Himes manages to perform the remarkable task of simultaneously paying homage to Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel and writing her own brilliant novel of love, betrayal and censorship. The result is an atmospheric, gripping, authoritative and deeply suspenseful narrative that utterly transports the reader.”—Margot Livesey

The author

Julie Lekstrom Himes
Julie Lekstrom Himes’ short fiction has been published in Shenandoah, The Florida Review (Editor’s Choice Award 2008), Fourteen Hills (nominated for Best American Mysteries 2011), and elsewhere. This is her debut novel. She lives with her family in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Books by region

  • Cover: Y/N - Esther Yi

    Esther Yi

    Y/N

    2024, pp. 196, £ 9.99
    A novel about obsessive fandom and literary self-destruction.
  • Cover: Bite your Friends: Stories of the Body Militant - Fernanda Eberstadt

    Fernanda Eberstadt

    Bite your Friends: Stories of the Body Militant

    2024, pp. 288, £ 9.99
    A history of the body as a site of resistance to power, and a subversive memoir.
  • Cover: Delicious Foods - James Hannaham

    James Hannaham

    Delicious Foods

    2024, pp. 368, £ 14.99
    A moving story of freedom, perseverance, and survival.
  • Cover: Bite your Friends: Stories of the Body Militant - Fernanda Eberstadt

    Fernanda Eberstadt

    Bite your Friends: Stories of the Body Militant

    2024, pp. 288, £ 18.99
    A history of the body as a site of resistance to power, and a subversive memoir.
  • Cover: The Dolphin House - Audrey Schulman

    Audrey Schulman

    The Dolphin House

    2023, 539 min., £ 15.60
    A young woman and her extraordinary connection with a pod of dolphins. From the award-winning author of Theory of Bastards.
  • Cover: Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta - James Hannaham

    James Hannaham

    Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta

    2023, pp. 304, £ 9.99
    From the award winning author of Delicious Foods, the raucous, irreverent, and heart wrenching story of a transgender woman.

More suggestions

  • Cover: Y/N - Esther Yi

    Esther Yi

    Y/N

    2024, pp. 196, £ 9.99
    A novel about obsessive fandom and literary self-destruction.
  • Cover: The House of Gazes - Daniele Mencarelli

    Daniele Mencarelli

    The House of Gazes

    2024, pp. 224, £ 14.99
    A powerful coming-of-age story about loss, identity, and rebirth.
  • Cover: Fathers and Fugitives - S J Naudé

    S J Naudé

    Fathers and Fugitives

    2024, pp. 192, £ 14.99
    An inventive and emotionally charged novel about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging.
  • Cover: The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan - Domenico Starnone

    Domenico Starnone

    The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan

    2024, pp. 144, £ 14.99
    An enchanting story, in the unique voice of one of Italy’s greatest contemporary writers.
  • Cover: Luda - Grant Morrison

    Grant Morrison

    Luda

    2024, pp. 464, £ 10.99
    A drag queen becomes obsessed with her mysterious young rival who might be an occultist, or a murderer… or the greatest star of all.
  • Cover: The Silence of the Choir - Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

    Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

    The Silence of the Choir

    2024, pp. 368, £ 14.99
    A polyphonic tale of immigration and community by the winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt