It is estimated that some three million people died in the Soviet
forced-labour camps of Kolyma, in the northeastern area of Siberia.
Shalamov himself spent seventeen years there, and in these stories he
vividly captures the lives of ordinary people caught up in terrible
circumstances, whose hopes and plans extended to further than a few
hours. This new enlarged edition combines two collections previously
published in the United States as Kolyma Tales and Graphite.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of
classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700
titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
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notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.