In his code of belief, his sufferings as a prisoner, and his prosaic and poetic references to his overwhelming experiences, Varlam Shalamov was the archetypical representative of the terrifying events that were endemic in the Soviet Union during the rule of Joseph Stalin. He left fictionalized accounts of what ranks as one of the most horrific series of events to blight the twentieth century: the Great Terror in the Soviet Union, with millions sentenced to prison camps in the gulag (an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh Lagerei [Prison Camp system]). Because, as one of its most thorough and faithful witnesses, Shalamov was able to record firsthand the enormity of the terror, his work--especially the short stories for which he is renowned--is central to a knowledge and understanding of the abhorrent excesses of Soviet rule, particularly during Stalin's hegemony. Shalamov is the author of six cycles of short stories--under...