Alexander Solzhenitsyn
A Century in His Life
by D. M. Thomas
This hardcover with dust jacket is a former library book, discarded, and is in very good condition with minor shelf wear. It has the typical library markings and labels. The dust jacket is protected by a clear plastic cover. I discovered one dog-eared page but no writing or highlighting.
583 pages, stated First edition February 1998, ISBN 0312180365.
Synopsis
An authoritative biography of the Russian author and political dissident, written by a well-known novelist and translator. Thomas describes Solzhenitsyn's childhood, his experiences as an officer in the Red Army during World War II, his imprisonment in a Soviet gulag, and his eventual emergence as the most prominent novelist and political critic in the postwar Soviet Union. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
Publisher's Note
D. M. Thomas paints a deeply affecting portrait of the intricate relationship between Solzhenitsyn's life and his art, always framing this biography in the context of the historical times. Indeed, Thomas tells not only the harrowing and sorrowful tale of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's life but also the painful story of Russia itself, a country perpetually at war with itself and its own diverse people. Beginning with the years of Revolution and Civil War, Solzhenitsyn's dramatic life embodies the cruelty, passion, and chaos that have characterized Russian history over the last century. Thomas's account covers extensively all the major periods of the Russian author's remarkable life, from childhood to his years in the Stalinist labor camps, his battle against censorship and his expulsion from the U.S.S.R. in 1974, and his Vermont period and return to a Russia that has shed its Communist cloak but not its dark interior.
Industry reviews
"A new chapter in an epic of love and hate. It is a story with all the elements of a Russian novel--passion, betrayal, K.G.B. intrigue--set against an epic backdrop of 20th-century Russian history." -Kakutani
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