Russian author who shot to fame when his first novel 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' somehow passed through censorship and was allowed to be published. He was the first person to alert the World to Stalin's Gulags (prison camps) after he was openly critical of Stalin in a letter and was sentenced to several years in a variety of camps.
Sad news indeed, I'm a great admirer of his literary work. It was about 10 years ago when I first read 'The First Circle' which I simply couldn't put down from the moment I picked it up. I then read 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' which, to this day, has to be one of the most depressing books I've ever read... His description of life in a gulag (where he himself had also stayed for a number of years) is harrowing beyond belief. One can well believe that Stalin was responsible for more mass-murder than Hitler or Hirohito combined... and to his own, educated, people. I would also recommend 'August 1914'... particularly the episode where the writer imagines a meeting with Tolstoy one summer afternoon... A sad loss, but he certainly lived a fuller life than most.
