I finished Master and Margarita by Bulgakov on the boat back from Victoria. It's definitely a Russian novel, including the morbid fascination with death and roubles, characters with ten names, including family, familiar, formal and diminuitive forms which you are assumed to know, and a lot of talk about Christ, the devil and death. The only odd thing about it is that it's relatively light and comic (despite the untimely beheading in chapter 3). The book includes some great characters including the pirate, Archibald Archibaldovitch, and the indomitable Margerita. Note that the eponymous characters don't show up until page 183. The book is also quite weird. I'd say it easily gives Tom Robbins a run for his money in the weirdness department. It gets the recommend, but be patient and wait for Margerita to show up before you give up on it.