The woman who sits across from me at work, grew up in Russia, leaving well after she was an adult. She noticed that I was reading The Master and Margarita, and she got very excited. It turns out that she absolutely loves the novel.

Her first question to me was, is it possible to read the story in English, to understand it not being from Russia? So much of the language, the story, is so specific to experience of being a Soviet Russian that a whole lot must be lost.

We talked about the novel, and the Russian Book Club, which she was just thrilled about by the way, for a good 45 minutes. She has decided to read the book again, this time in English, and see how she feels the language and the story translate.

I know that Tom has mentioned that this novel can lose some of it's dynamics when the reader doesn't have a lot of knowledge and perspective in Russian history, culture, etc. Tatyana felt the same way, but was interested and excited that I enjoyed it, and got a lot out of it.