Description
Book SynopsisAt the height of Stalin's postwar terror, Innokenty, a young diplomat and scion of a corrupt ruling class, discovers an earlier and more spiritual tradition than that adopted by the October Revolution, the beginning of a process which is Solzhenitsyn's basic theme: the individual's experience of acquiring an immortal soul.
Unwisely but generously, Innokenty helps a friend in danger of arrest, only to be arrested himself and sent to a special prison. This, the archetype of the Gulag, is described with masterful psychological insight. There are no heroes and hardly any villains; oppressors are no less victims then the oppressed.
In the great tradition of the Russian novel, The First Circle is both a brooding account of human nature and a scrupulously exact description of a historical period.
Trade ReviewA great novel... A majestic work of genius * Sunday Times *
The First Circle is arguably the greatest Russian novel of the century * Spectator *
A future generation of Russians will be able to come to terms with their history through books like
Doctor Zhivago and
The First Circle * Financial Times *
