Recommended by
- Peter Thiel: "The devil shows up in Stalinist Russia, and gives everybody what they want, and everything goes haywire." source ↗
Summary
Mikhail Bulgakov's masterwork, set in 1930s Moscow, tells the story of the Devil visiting the city and wreaking comic and terrifying havoc, interwoven with the story of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua. A satire of Soviet bureaucracy and a meditation on faith, power, and mercy.
For founders
For founders, this is not a business book but a reminder of the power of narrative and the cost of dogma. It's included here because Peter Thiel has cited it as a favorite — a window into a contrarian mind rather than a management lesson.