Fatal Eggs (Hesperus Classics) - Tapa blanda

This new translation of a key work by one of the greatest Russian satirists is particularly topical to the current debates on genetic modification. An inspired work of science fiction and a biting political allegory, Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs tells of a brilliant scientist whose experiments with life spiral terribly - and fatefully - out of control. Quite by chance, Professor Persikov discovers a new form of light ray whose effect, when directed at living cells, is to accelerate growth in primitive organisms. But when this ray is shone on the wrong batch of eggs, the Professor finds himself both the unwilling creator of giant hybrids, and the focus of a merciless press campaign. For it seems the propaganda machine has turned its gaze on him, distorting his nature in the very way his 'innocent' tampering created the monster snakes and crocodiles that now terrorise the neighbourhood.

Russian novelist and dramatist Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) is one of the foremost satirists of the twentieth century and most famous for The Master and Margarita. Winner of the David Cohen British Literature Prize in 2001, Doris Lessing is one of the most eminent figures in world literature.