Notes from the House of the Dead

One of the most poignant books by Dostoevsky — about life in a penal colony, freedom, and the ability of a person to preserve themselves in any conditions.

The four years spent by Dostoevsky in exile formed the basis of one of the most unusual books in Russian literature. "Notes from the House of the Dead," published in 1860–1862, first revealed the reality of the Siberian penal colony and laid the foundation for Russian camp prose.

Nobleman Alexander Goryanchikov, convicted of murdering his wife, finds himself among convicts whom society has long ceased to consider human. Day by day, he observes their cruelty and compassion, despair and hope, trying to understand whether it is possible to preserve a living soul in the House of the Dead?