8 Ku Ku من عند Dibrova, Zaporiz'ka oblast, أوكرانيا من عند Dibrova, Zaporiz'ka oblast, أوكرانيا

Grossman's last book, and a sum-up of his very powerful philosophy and analysis of not only the Soviet Union, but the human experience in general. Follows a man named Ivan through his own process of self-discovery as he comes back to Moscow after decades in the Soviet Gulag. The ending is extremely powerful--I probably had to read this book 30 times while working on my thesis (it is rather short), and every time I got to the end, I was blown away. Not a book to read while you are already sad though! Although it does put a bad day in perspective...