One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

By Alexander Solzhenitsyn,

Book cover of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Book description

Foreshadowing his later detailed accounts of the Soviet prison-camp system, Solzhenitsyn's classic portrayal of life in the gulag is all the more powerful for being slighter and more personal than those later monumental volumes. Continuing the tradition of the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, especially Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn is fully…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich highlights the harshness of human life, particularly those experienced by prisoners during World War 2 in the Soviet Union.

The tale follows the life of a man, Ivan Denisovich, and although we are only met with the reality of a day in his life, we can only assume that not much differs day by day. This book is a powerful portrayal of what human beings can endure in order to be who they are.

It explores how people will cling to their ideologies, and, in the case of the author himself, promote…

Want books like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Browse books like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Book cover of Gulag: A History
Book cover of Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice
Book cover of The Porcupine

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,187

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Soviet Union, communism, and gulags?

The Soviet Union 378 books
Communism 89 books
Gulags 15 books