SHALAMOV’S POWERFUL TALES OF SURVIVING THE SOVIET GULAG

Now in a new collection of 86 stories in the only translation to be based on the authorized Russian text

In 1936, Varlam Shalamov, a journalist and writer, was arrested for counterrevolutionary activities and sent to the Soviet Gulag. Kolyma Stories, a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature, is an epic collection of short fictional tales describing the fifteen years Shalamov spent in the worst of the Siberian prison camps—six of which were endured as a slave in the Kolyma goldmines, before working as a paramedic in the prison camps.

This is the first of two volumes (the second will be available in 2019) that will constitute the first complete English translation of Shalamov’s prison writings. The stories offer unflinching and clear-eyed portraits both of those who committed horrendous acts and those pushed to the limits of suffering and beyond.

“As a record of the Gulag and human nature laid bare, Varlam Shalamov is the equal of Solzhenitsyn and Nadezhda Mandelstam, while the artistry of his stories recalls Chekhov. This is literature of the first rank, to be read as much for pleasure as a caution against the perils of totalitarianism.” —David Bezmozgis

“Available only for the last five years in Russia itself, a searing document, worthy of shelving alongside Solzhenitsyn.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Shalamov’s prose is as simple and spare as a scientist’s. The stories are exciting because they deal with extremes, like stories of Shackleton’s expeditions, or Jack London’s Klondike tales. . . Sit with them long enough and you begin to sense the depths of feeling under the permafrost, and something approaching Chekhovian artistry. . . these stories are literature—great literature, with their own terrible beauty.” —Alex Abramovich, Bookforum