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A dark, sobering story about a fictional, aging Communist revolutionary, Nicholas Rubashov, who is imprisoned and psychologically tortured by his own party for crimes he did not commit. The story takes place during the Moscow trials held in the late 1930s.
It’s easy to see why this is considered such an important literary work in the 20th Century, because of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and the history of Communism. However, I had a difficult time getting through this book. It’s dark and depressing and I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I had actually lived through the cold war. Even still, there were parts that I found very interesting. First, Koestler always referred to the communist leader as the nameless “Number One”, making
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I loved this book. It was an intersting read that portrayed the transistion from the intelligentsia to the full blown communism Russia is known for!!!
I'm not really into politics and political treatises but this was nicely understated and encouraged the reader to draw his own conclusions.
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Uno de mis libros favoritos.
Jul 15, 2009
Jen
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Jen
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