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In an aphorism sometimes attributed to Leo Tolstoy, sometimes to John Gardner, all literature relies on one of two plots: A person goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

An impossible composer to pin down, Machover has written a traditional grand opera such as “Resurrection,” based on Tolstoy’s novel, and “Brain Opera,” which is just that, using electrodes on your noggin.

Wally Lamb has been likened to Joyce and Tolstoy.

The world of “Pachinko” is as complex as a Tolstoy novel, in which the fortunes of a family and the country where they struggle for love and money are tied in exhilarating ways.

The series begins with Isla offering a more profane version of the oft-quoted Tolstoy observation that all happy families are alike, but each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way.