The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov
67 people recommended it in 24 threads, 2009–2025.
6 commenters pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
It was the first book I started reading I could not put down until the end.
(apart from the fact it is a great novel, this is so wickedly funny )
Political persecution and censorship are major themes. Even things like psychiatric hospitals are important because they were often used as an alternative torture and imprisonment system.
If I say best as in long lasting, “Master and Margarita” uniquely has the power to make me feel a kind of romance when I remember it, not just while reading.
She loved it. It's a very strange book apparently but it steered her into some other Russian authors since.
To me this is about staying silent when you see evil being committed. But it doesn't even have to be 'Evil with a big E', it's just about speaking up when you see something that doesn't sit right with your morality.
There's something about it that makes you go "What happens next?!" for all 400 odd pages of it, and before you know it, you're at the end.
Where it comes up
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