Moscow on the brink of a nervous breakdown. The "Russian Faust" - Mikhail Bulgakov's second masterpiece finally newly translated and now available again as a standalone edition. There are stories whose explosive power is simply too great. Mikhail Bulgakov's novella "Heart of a Dog" was created in 1925 but could only be printed in 1968 - and even then not in Bulgakov's homeland, but in a Russian exile magazine in Germany. Why? A brilliant surgeon takes in a stray dog at his home and transforms it into the "new man" - he implants the pituitary gland and the testicles of a sleazy petty criminal. However, the animal-human who has mutated into a communist comrade soon proves to be not just a genuine nuisance: being devoid of conscience and responsibility, he becomes a danger to everyone. He remains an animal, albeit in human form.