The title says it all this book is a look into the Gulag, the organized labour camps that housed million of convicts in the Soviet Union from the early 20th century until well into the 1980s...this is an incredibly well researched and tightly documented book. Anne Applebaum gained access to information that had never been released and related it in this books in way that was readable and interesting.
I was fascinated by the personal accounts and also by her take on the propaganda machinery that obscured so much and made so much permissible.
Millions upon millions died in these labour camps, humanity's ability to stand by and permit the unthinkable to happen again and again, never ceases to take my breath away.
This was fine writing no doubt, but can't give the five stars because at times it was too biased, granted how can you not be...but it felt like too much at times. Still recommend fervently for those interested in modern history particularly of the Soviet Union specifically Stalin's regime.