Siberia, 1953. Stalin is dead and a once-prosperous thief named Alek Karriker is feeling the pressure. Trapped in an icy prison camp where vio... read full description
reviews
Aug 07, 2011
Grant
rated it: 
By The Time We Leave Here We’ll be Friends by J. David Osborne. He’s a young author but his debut is impressive. Probably one of the best books I’ve read this year.
I think his talent lies in his economic use of language. Every word is carefully chosen and adds to the overall harrowing atmosphere of a Russian gulag.
Former thief and prisoner, Alek Karriker is a guard and is searching for a way out of this hellish place. The only way he can achieve this is by finding someone who More...
I think his talent lies in his economic use of language. Every word is carefully chosen and adds to the overall harrowing atmosphere of a Russian gulag.
Former thief and prisoner, Alek Karriker is a guard and is searching for a way out of this hellish place. The only way he can achieve this is by finding someone who More...
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Jul 29, 2011
David
rated it:
Set on the insides of a Siberian gulag, Osborne's debut novel is something beyond dark and gritty. It's a tense story of grizzled villains and gruesome horror, set in a deadly void where the depravity knows no bounds. The protagonist is Alek Karriker, a former prisoner given guard duty, and there's something seriously wrong with his neck. He and the rest of the people living in this prison are all doing their best just to survive, and while Karriker is tough as nails, he too might break under th
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 11, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Originally published at WelcomeToTheVelvet.com:
In the frozen hell that is Siberia, Alek Karriker goes about his duties as gulag guard while losing himself in the fog of opium as an unholy light pores from the scar across his neck. Ilya Bogruv hauls starving inmates out into the wastes and puts a bullet in each man's head, telling his superiors they tried to escape. Anton Nikitin wanders the fences at night and sits during the hours after reveille reading Soviet propaganda and gingerl More...
In the frozen hell that is Siberia, Alek Karriker goes about his duties as gulag guard while losing himself in the fog of opium as an unholy light pores from the scar across his neck. Ilya Bogruv hauls starving inmates out into the wastes and puts a bullet in each man's head, telling his superiors they tried to escape. Anton Nikitin wanders the fences at night and sits during the hours after reveille reading Soviet propaganda and gingerl More...
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(2 people liked it)
May 06, 2011
Lea
rated it: 
EDIT: After writing a review for this -- no easy task -- I somehow deleted the damn thing. Maybe I'll have the heart at some point to come back and rewrite it, but for now I think I'll go get some lunch and cheer myself up. Maybe take a computer class or something so I can stop doing this sort of ridiculous nonsense.
Short version, I really liked this book. It was weird and I don't really get it, but the writing is gorgeous and the characters are strangely likable, even though t More...
Short version, I really liked this book. It was weird and I don't really get it, but the writing is gorgeous and the characters are strangely likable, even though t More...
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Oct 19, 2011
Jose
rated it:
J. David Osbourne’s BY THE TIME WE LEAVE HERE, WE’LL BE FRIENDS is one of those rare stories that follows you long after you’ve finished reading. A nightmare inducing tale set in one of the most surreal and chilling locations you’ll ever find, it’ll leave you wondering how you got there, what your next move will be, and, most importantly, how you’ll ever manage to get the fuck out. Opium fevers, black magic, strange customs and guards that piss on you while laughing, Osbourne has created a stunn
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 15, 2012
David
rated it:
J.David Osbourne is an asshole. You know the type, The first time they
pick up a guitar they can play a power cord without any help. They
know how to ride a skateboard and do tricks the first time they try.
This is a first novel. An amazingly good, taunt fucked up mind binder
of Dark Bizarro that is so well crafted you wont believe it's a first
novel. I know, what an asshole. He should have to struggle through a
few good but not quite there novels before writing a m More...
pick up a guitar they can play a power cord without any help. They
know how to ride a skateboard and do tricks the first time they try.
This is a first novel. An amazingly good, taunt fucked up mind binder
of Dark Bizarro that is so well crafted you wont believe it's a first
novel. I know, what an asshole. He should have to struggle through a
few good but not quite there novels before writing a m More...
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 16, 2011
Dustin
rated it:
Wow. This is a great book. The writing is solid. The plot original and gripping. The characters realistic and strange. The setting (Siberian Gulag) is so realistically portrayed I read the bulk of the book with a sweater on. It is odd, beautiful and violent. It is also well-informed.
The book deals with prisoners in a Russian Gulag during the reign of Stalin. The men have a cast system in place, where one's transgressions can be read on their skin in the form of tattoos. Body art plays a la More...
The book deals with prisoners in a Russian Gulag during the reign of Stalin. The men have a cast system in place, where one's transgressions can be read on their skin in the form of tattoos. Body art plays a la More...
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 24, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Fanfuckingtastic.
Of everything that I've read and reviewed over the past 2 or 3 years, this is the one book that deserves to be read by a larger audience. It won the Wonderland Award for best novel of the year, and there's no doubt it was an honor well earned.
Dense, dark, parasitic, drug-infused nightmare set in a Stalin-era Siberian prison camp. Cormac McCarthy fans take special note of this one - it's bleak both in its subject matter and its stingy use of language. Nothing More...
Of everything that I've read and reviewed over the past 2 or 3 years, this is the one book that deserves to be read by a larger audience. It won the Wonderland Award for best novel of the year, and there's no doubt it was an honor well earned.
Dense, dark, parasitic, drug-infused nightmare set in a Stalin-era Siberian prison camp. Cormac McCarthy fans take special note of this one - it's bleak both in its subject matter and its stingy use of language. Nothing More...
Feb 21, 2012
Charles
rated it:
A brutal story of prisoners escaping a Siberian camp via horrifying, opium-induced hallucinations that are still preferable to the everyday nightmare of Stalin's soviet Russia. I'd never really considered what it would take to survive a prison camp in the winter wasteland, but copious drug use would be a logical first step.
Jan 12, 2012
Adam
rated it:
Dark and hallucinatory tale set in a Russian gulag post-WWII. Amid opium smoke, the prisoners display their capacity for cruelty towards one another amidst the divide between prisoners given a modicum of authority and the tattooed underworld gang members who plot against them. Supernatural phenomena and an original depiction of the afterlife materializes in what may only be opium delirium.
Jan 04, 2012
Skye
rated it: 
By The Time We Leave Here, We'll Be Friends has to be one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. The interlocked story's of Alec, Milena, Bogrov and Hipolit spare no details of their gruesome lives. The way the author describes the visions of the opium user's is breath taking, and incredibly imaginative.
Though I did enjoy reading this book I would suggest it to a man over a woman, though this is not to say a woman wouldn't enjoy it, because I did.
Though I did enjoy reading this book I would suggest it to a man over a woman, though this is not to say a woman wouldn't enjoy it, because I did.
Jan 23, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
Prepare to have your mind blown. Set against the desolate Siberian landscape, a cast of desperate characters live an experience that challenges humankind to test the very limits of survival. Superlative descriptions overwhelm the senses as you familiarize yourself with a tenebrous situation sprinkled with demonic forces. JDO does a remarkable job of interweaving storylines into a masterful piece of literature that will leave you no doubt convinced that he is more than just the Stephen King of th
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 08, 2011
Rob
rated it:
Impressive debut novel. It's a difficult feat to write something so economical in language and yet so rich in symbols. This book is not for the easily offended but Osborne uses this tapestry of the extremity of human misery and depravity to tell an important story about the things that really matter once human dignity and social niceties have been stripped violently away. I am convinced that I could read this book fifteen more times and find some new layer hidden within its many clever layers ev
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 24, 2011
Cameron
rated it:
This is probably my favorite bizarro novel of 2010. I'm amazed this is a first novel.
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 07, 2012
Brian
rated it:
Harsh, brutal, dystopian as hell in a Kurt Vonnegut meets Bizarro way Osborne has crafted a wholly unique work of fiction. I actually read it twice out of pure enjoyment and to ensure I had everything straight. The enjoyment was still there but there is no straight with this book.
Set in the world of the Suberian Gulags and written by a guy from Oklahoma. Supremely screwed up for those who like their literature dark and weird and leaves you thinking.
Set in the world of the Suberian Gulags and written by a guy from Oklahoma. Supremely screwed up for those who like their literature dark and weird and leaves you thinking.
Feb 22, 2012
Ryan
rated it:
Osborne's tale of gangsters struggling to survive in a freezing Siberian prison camp is trippy, violent, and disturbing. Admittedly, it took me about 60 pages to figure out what Osborne was going for. But once it clicked, this spare, roiling page-turner stuck in my brain like a tumor.
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Dec 16, 2011
Brian
rated it:
Compelling read that I couldn't help but tear through all in one morning. But I am one of the people left scratching their head about the ending.
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