One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Russian: Один день Ивана Денисовича, tr. Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha, IPA: [ɐˈdʲin ˈdʲenʲ ɪˈvanə dʲɪˈnʲisəvʲɪtɕə]) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine Novy Mir (New World). The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the early 1950s and describes a single day in the life of ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. The book's publication was an extraordinary event in Soviet literary history, since never before had an account of Stalinist repressions been openly distributed. Novy Mir editor Aleksandr Tvardovsky wrote a short introduction for the issue entitled "Instead of a Foreword" to prepare the journal's readers for what they were about to experience.
Marvellously written, and deeply moving. This story, a telling of a day of a gulag prisoner's life, will make you re-evaluate the idea of happiness and a good day. Brilliant throughout, with humour despite the dark content.
