Fear No Evil

The prison memoirs of the soviet dissident and Jewish activist relate the harrowing events of his nine years in KGB custody, from interrogation to release

Every tour through the irrational labyrinth of the gulagthe Soviet prison system turns up new horrors, new injustices, new quirks concerning the human will to survive. Sharansky spent nine years in Soviet prisons and labor camps. The KGB, in punishment for his human-rights activism and his support for Soviet Jews' demands to emigrate to Israel, used seemingly every means possible to destroy his spirit. He refused to cooperate with his captors and tormentors, who force-fed him through the mouth and rectum during prolonged hunger strikes. In his cell, he kept a photo of his wife who had fled to Israel, where he joined her upon his eventual release in 1986. Told with remarkable calm, even with harrowing humor, Sharansky's gripping and deeply moving account of his prison years is a tribute to human resilience. His sheer courage and moral stature are matched only by his literary skill at conveying the nightmare he endured. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In 1977, Sharansky, a Jewish dissident, was arrested by the KGB on a charge of spying for the CIA. After 16 months of interrogation, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison, where he remained until 1986, when he was exchanged for a Soviet spy held by the United States. This is a riveting story, told directly and without self-pity, of the Soviet Union's attempts to crush political opponents. Unlike many others, Sharansky retained a sense of self by refusing to acknowledge that physical domination implied moral superiority, an opposition symbolized by his refusal to give up his Psalm book. A compelling account of numbing privations, hunger strikes, and especially of courage, this book will have wide appeal. Scholars will also gain insight into the reformed, but essentially unchanged, post-Stalin KGB and penal bureaucracies. Mark C. Carnes, Barnard Coll., Columbia Univ.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.