“The past is always beautiful. So, for that matter, is the future. Only the present hurts, and we carry it around like an abscess in our hearts.” — […]
Russian literature
The Village
“Life in the village is bitter, but it is life.” The Village by Ivan Bunin is a bleak yet deeply evocative portrayal of rural Russian life in the […]
Russian literature
The First Circle
“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is […]
Russian literature
Matryona’s Home
“A village is not worth its salt without a righteous man.” Chapter 1: The Arrival The narrator, Ignatich, a former political prisoner, arrives in the remote village of […]
Russian literature
Cancer Ward
“A man dies from a tumor, so how can a country survive with growths like labor camps and exiles?” Cancer Ward follows the lives of patients in a […]
Russian literature
The Gulag Archipelago
“In the Gulag Archipelago, humanity was extinguished—and yet, paradoxically, it was here that the human spirit burned brightest.” Part I: The Prison Industry The book opens with Solzhenitsyn’s […]
Russian literature
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
“The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.” Morning The novel opens with Ivan Denisovich Shukhov waking up in a […]
Russian literature
The Defense
“The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.” Chapter 1: […]
Russian literature
Glory
“The only way back is forward.” Chapter 1: Early Years Martin Edelweiss, a young Russian émigré, grows up in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg in a privileged but emotionally distant […]
Russian literature
Mary
“Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature. You never can tell what pebble she will pick up from the shore of life to keep among her treasures…” Chapter […]