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by Varlam Shalamov

Nearly 3 million people died in the forced-labor camps of Kolyma, the northeastern region of Siberia. Varlam Shalamov, considered by many to be Russia's greatest living writer, spent seventeen years there and set down the Kolyma experience in powerful short stories. This is the second, more extensive collection which presents a somewhat different view of the camps and the lives of ordinary people caught up in terrible circumstances.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393014762
• ISBN13: 9780393014761
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Tactile

I love this book. It is an account of experiences in Russian concentration camps told as a series of short stories written like mental journal entries. This first hand account of a historical context rarely-discussed is told in poignant and distilled mini-stories. The style is sparse and the content extraordinary.

Chilling

This collection of short stories is an ideal way to examine what life was like in Stalin's concentration camps. Shalamav writes in a dispassionate manner that heightens the reader's sense of loss and helplessness. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Soviet history.