Why read Within the Whirlwind?

Book cover of Within the Whirlwind

Book description

This book continues the narrative of Ginzburg's nightmarish eighteen-year survival of Soviet prisons and labor camps, following the Stalinist purges of 1937. Introduction by Heinrich Böll. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

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Why read it?

1 author picked Within the Whirlwind as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lanier Scott Isom

Author

I will never forget the first time I read Within the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg when I was in college, a memoir of Ginzburg’s ten-year survival of Soviet prisons and labor camps after the Stalinist purges of 1937.

I was stunned by the inhumanity of what happened to her and others and equally stunned about how easily mass executions can happen in civilized society. I was awakened to how quickly evil men can grab power and destroy lives.

From Lanier's list on strong women who determine their own destiny during trying times.