Bibliograph

Kolyma stories, by Varlam Shalamov ; translated and with an introduction by Donald Rayfield

Type

Label

Kolyma stories, by Varlam Shalamov ; translated and with an introduction by Donald Rayfield

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

short stories

Main title

Kolyma stories

Responsibility statement

by Varlam Shalamov ; translated and with an introduction by Donald Rayfield

Series statement

New York Review Books classics

Summary

Kolyma Stories is a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature, an epic array of short fictional tales reflecting the fifteen years that Varlam Shalamov spent in the Soviet Gulag. This is the first of two volumes (the second to appear in 2019) that together will constitute the first complete English translation of Shalamov’s stories and the only one to be based on the authorized Russian text. Shalamov spent six years as a slave in the gold mines of Kolyma before finding a less intolerable life as a paramedic in the prison camps. He began writing his account of life in Kolyma after Stalin’s death in 1953. His stories are at once the biography of a rare survivor, a historical record of the Gulag, and a literary work of unparalleled creative power, insight, and conviction

Classification