The Country Doctor's Notebook, Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in[masked], was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice — on the eve of Revolution — is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.