Mikhail and Margarita

By Julie Lekstrom Himes

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Release date: Mar 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787700222

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 for Mikhail and Margarita

[tommcgreevy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Did you ever wonder what caused Bulgakov to write The Master & Margarita? Well Julie Himes proposes an answer in this novel. Without giving the plot away, I think it is fair to say that Himes' story revolves around a love triangle involving Bulgakov, a state intelligence agent, and Margarita. As with many love triangles, each of the participants ends up diminished in ways they could not have anticipated. And each faces themself in the mirror frankly and exceeds our expectations as well. The Soviet Union of Stalin, and Stalin himself provides the background for the tale.I found the novel profoundly sad, but offering insight into each of the three main characters and making their outcomes thoroughly plausible. Reading this will give me cause to revisit The Master and Margarita once more.Well worth giving it a read in my opinion.