Young Doctor's Notebook

Fresh from medical school in the winter of 1917, the young and inexperienced Dr. Bomgard assumes the role of the only doctor in a provincial Russian hospital. Dealing with a slew of cases ranging from the horrific to the hilarious to the surreal, Bomgard recounts his solitary time practicing medicine among the superstitious, uneducated, and deeply suspicious populace of his new town.

Bomgard exhibits relentless patience and determination while fighting the daily uphill battle against the various challenges of an inexperienced, young country doctor, including scouring ten textbooks at once, hours before a complicated surgery, dealing with patients who either refuse to take their medicine or take it all at once, and handling a colleague with a dangerous morphine addiction. Somehow, despite the near-constant chaos, Bomgard continues to focus on the life-affirming moments that make his efforts worth the uncertainty, isolation, and lost sleep.

A semi-autobiographical collection of short stories by author, playwright, and erstwhile physician Mikhail Bulgakov, A Young Doctors Notebook chronicles the authors experiences practicing in a small village hospital in Smolensk Governorate in revolutionary Russia between 1916 and 1918. The collection of tales was originally published in individual installments in Russian medical journals, and was later compiled into a set by scholars of Bulgakovs work. It has since been adapted by the BBC in 2013, starring Daniel Radcliffe and John Hamm.

The Alma Classics edition of A Young Doctors Notebook is translated by Hugh Aplin with the authorization of the Bulgakov Estate and Andrew Nurnberg Associates. Hugh Aplin is currently Head of Russian at Westminster School, London. His translation reflects the clear, humorous, and profound language of the original with colloquial English idioms and phrasings. Readers without previous experience in Russian literature will find this translation to be accessible and fun, even though the subtext of Bulgakovs works is the murky, mysterious underbelly of Soviet culture.