A poignant and unexpectedly inspirational account of women's suffering and resilience in
Stalin's forced labor camps diligently transcribed in the kitchens and living rooms of nine
survivors. The pain inflicted by the gulags has cast a long and dark shadow over Soviet-era
history. Zgustová's collection of interviews with former female prisoners not only chronicles
the hardships of the camps but also serves as testament to the power of beauty in face of
adversity. Where one would expect to find stories of hopelessness and despair Zgustová has
unearthed tales of the love art and friendship that persisted in times of tragedy. Across the
Soviet Union prisoners are said to have composed and memorized thousands of verses. Galya
Sanova born in a Siberian gulag remembers reading from a hand-stitched copy of Little Red
Riding Hood. Irina Emelyanova passed poems to the male prisoner she had grown to love. In this
way the arts lent an air of humanity to the women's brutal realities. These stories collected
in the vein of Svetlana Alexievich's Nobel Prize-winning oral histories turn one of the
darkest periods of the Soviet era into a song of human perseverance in a way that reads as an
intimate family history.
