Solzhenitsyn's devastating picture of one day in the life of a prisoner in a remote Siberian labour camp has been hailed by the world's critics as an undisputed masterpiece. This moving novel is a powerful expose of the corrupt conditions that Solzhenitsyn suffered in a concentration camp under Stalin and is a scathing indictment of Soviet bureaucracy.
I first read this many years ago and the idea of a crust of bread being the height of luxury stayed with me and was just as moving with this second reading.
These men are forced out to work in -27 degrees, their wildest fantasy is that the temperature will drop to -41 degrees meaning they don't have to go to work.
They have to build in these temperatures but have great difficulty because the mortar often freezes before it can be laid .
An incredible read, its very short, only 156 pages but it should be read by all generations.
The " great Soviet experiment" to be mocked for eternity
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