Attempting a medical first, a scientist transplants the glands of a petty criminal into a scroungy Moscow mongrel named Sharik. The creature that results is a hairy, lecherous, vulgar, vodka-swilling comrade who wreaks havoc on the scientist's apartment, chases casts as head of the "sub-department of the Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds," and threatens to expose his creator as a counterrevolutionary.

First translated into English by Michael Glenny in 1968, twenty years before it would be officially published in the Soviet Union, The Heart of a Dog is a blistering satire on the Communist efforts to create a "new Soviet man." It's also superbly funny and narratively bold, told partly from the point of view of the dog---a novel that yaps, barks, and still bites.