Diaboliad

Sensitive and mild-mannered employee Korotkov is summarily dismissed from his job at the Central Directorate of Matches and Related Products due to an insignificant error, and he attempts to find his new superior, Kalsoner, responsible for his dismissal. His search through the labyrinth of Soviet bureaucracy progressively takes on the surreal dimensions of a nightmare. Amidst endless corridors, doors that lead nowhere, and multiplying faces, this man seeks what defines him, while everything around him becomes opaque, unstable, and incomprehensible.

In Diaboliad, first published in 1924 and which drew the ire of pro-Soviet critics, Mikhail Bulgakov constructs a dizzying experience where reality leans towards the absurd and logic succumbs to delirium. With dark humour and relentless precision, he reveals a universe in which identity is lost, language fails, and the system closes in on itself. Along with the short story Fatal Eggs, included in this volume and which also explores the absurd and the bizarre, this satirical tale offers a fascinating glimpse into the artistic development of the author of The Master and Margarita.

Translated directly from Russian by Nina Guerra and Filipe Guerra, winners of the APT/PEN Clube Português Grand Prize for Literary Translation.

Work Details:

• Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
• Publisher: Editorial Presença
• Number of Pages: 152