3.98 avg rating — 4,494 ratings

"Babel is one of my favorite authors, and unlike Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn, he's virtually unknown in the West. I find that his works translate quite well into English provided that you're familiar with the subject matter (in this case, the Soviet-Polish war, Cossacks, and Jewish communities in Poland).

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3.88 avg rating — 116,547 ratings

"Dystopian novel that pre-dates Brave New World and 1984"

4.08 avg rating — 75,611 ratings

4.28 avg rating — 436,625 ratings

4.39 avg rating — 24,780 ratings

3.98 avg rating — 127,385 ratings

4.20 avg rating — 3,108 ratings

"(who was a futurist of such fantastic eccentricity his life is almost as interesting as his writing."

4.36 avg rating — 8,744 ratings

"When asked of his opinion about 'A Day in the Life' Shalamov said Solzhenitsyn had watered-down the horror of the gulags a bit due to one scene in the infirmary where there was a cat. "If he'd told the truth, that cat would have already been eaten.""

3.78 avg rating — 6,602 ratings

"This one really stuck in my head. There was something disquieting and horrifying about everything that happens in this book from the plotline, the narrator, to the language used."

4.03 avg rating — 13,348 ratings

3.84 avg rating — 5,976 ratings

"Hands down my favorite read of the semester for the line "As difficult as putting an octopus in tuxedo pants""

4.37 avg rating — 5,485 ratings

3.69 avg rating — 4,069 ratings

"Optional but underrated and high recommended "