As the new reality of post-Revolution Soviet life begins to settle in, a gifted but eccentric zoologist named Persikov invents a machine that revolutionizes the growth of living organisms by drastically increasing their size and reproductive rates.

Meanwhile, a mysterious plague has wiped out the entire poultry population of Russia, raising concerns about the government's ability to feed its people. Hoping to use Persikov's yet-untested invention to revive the decimated chicken population, the secret service confiscates Persikov's machine—to disastrous results.

One of Bulgakov's only longer works that was published in its entirety during his lifetime, The Fatal Eggs was inspired by H. G. Wells's 1904 novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, in which two scientists discover a method of accelerating growth that backfires through the creation of a plague of giant chickens and then a war between affected and unaffected humans. The Fatal Eggs enjoyed a widely positive reception upon its release in the Nedra journal in 1925. However, like much of Bulgakov's work, the science fiction novella was also disapproved of by certain Soviet critics who saw the tale as an anti-Soviet satire of the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and of post-war leadership.

The Alma Classics edition of Fatal Eggs is translated by Roger Cockrell with the authorization of the Bulgakov Estate and Andrew Nurnberg Associates. Roger Cockrell was previously the Head of the Department of Russian at the University of Exeter and has worked extensively on expert translations of Russian works including other Bulgakov works such as Black Snow and The White Guard. 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 Bulgakov's works is the murky, mysterious underbelly of Soviet culture.