by Varlam Shalamov, John Glad
This was a tough read but one I am very glad to have read. This was a collection of stories about the conditions in Soviet forced-labour camps during the Stalinist regime. It definitely filled in many of the knowledge gaps I had of what happened in the Siberian gulags. Only someone who spent time in...
This book is entirely devoted to stories of life in the Soviet Gulag, based on the author's own 17 years experience in the Russian penal system. I have read the book in the original Russian, so I noticed that each story was written in relatively short sentences, laced with sombre words and structure...
Such an excellent book. Vivid and brutal. The reader becomes the inmate, not gladly, but with great interest (and, unlike the inmates, not inextricably). Some of the best Gulag/labor camp literature I've ever read. For me it's superior to Survival in Auschwitz, and richer (if bleak is rich) to One D...
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