Going to Zossen: Or the Capitulation of Vasily Mikhailovich (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781919168463)

"A timely revelation." BookLife

"Gripping." Kirkus Reviews

"Will embrace even readers who held little prior familiarity with and interest in Soviet affairs." Midwest Book Reviews

The year is 1993. In a collapsing post-Soviet town, a former serviceman, Vasily Mikhailovich, accepts work as the director of a remote juvenile prison colony. Determined to bring order and empathy to a brutal system, he starts a programme of rehabilitation for the young boys. But he is soon thwarted by the corruption around him; as he watches the people nearby prosper through deceit and cruelty, he is forced to make a choice: to uphold his principles and risk everything, or surrender them to save his family.

Based on the real accounts of educational colonies during the Russian free-market transition, Going to Zossen is an exploration of the bargains ordinary people make under oppressive systems -a necessary read in today's political climate. Ideal for fans of Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These and Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys.