The first published novel from the controversial Nobel Prize winning Russian author of The Gulag Archipelago.
In the madness of World War II, a dutiful Russian soldier is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp. So begins this masterpiece of modern Russian fiction, a harrowing account of a man who has conceded to all things evil with dignity and strength.
First published in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is considered one of the most significant works ever to emerge from Soviet Russia. Illuminating a dark chapter in Russian history, it is at once a graphic picture of work camp life and a moving tribute to man’s will to prevail over relentless dehumanization.
Includes an Introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
and an Afterword by Eric Bogosian
“A masterpiece...Squarely in the mainstream of Russia’s great literary traditions.”—The Nation
“An extraordinary human document.”—Moscow’s Daily Mail
“Cannot fail to arouse bitterness and pain in the heart of the reader. A literary and political event of the first magnitude.”—New Statesman
“Stark...the story of how one falsely accused convict and his fellow prisoners survived or perished in an arctic slave labor camp after the war.”—Time
“Both as a political tract and as a literary work, it is in the Doctor Zhivago category.”—Washington Post
“Dramatic...outspoken...graphically detailed...a moving human record.”—Library Journal