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Book — Black Snow

Black Snow cover

[ US | UK ]

Black Snow

by Mikhail Bulgakov

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: When Maxudov’s bid to take his own life fails, he dramatises the novel whose failure provoked the suicide attempt. To the resentment of literary Moscow, his play is accepted by the legendary Independent Theatre and Maxudov plunges into a vortex of inflated egos. With each rehearsal more sparks fly and the chances of the play being ready to perform recede. Black Snow is the ultimate back-stage novel and a brilliant satire by the author of The Master and Margarita on his ten-year love-hate relationship with Stanislavsky, Method-acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre.

While this book is a harsh satire of his own peers, the book is certainly timeless and you can happily read without knowing anything of Communist Russia, Stanislavsky or the Moscow Arts Theatre. The characters are wonderful, funny, horrible. The conversations real. The situations usually hilarious. Very enjoyable.

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Book — The Fifth Witness

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