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A review by srash
Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag by Nicolas Werth
4.0
Very matter-of-fact, compact scholarly account of a horrifying incident in Soviet history--thousands of kulaks, convicts, and hapless urbanites deported to a Siberian island with few supplies in the early 1930s. Murder, cannibalism, and Lord of the Flies ensue.
Very polished translation from the French (with none of the awkward styling that plagued Farewell.) It would have been easy to sensationalize this, but the historian author is pretty measured and is most interested in the systematic failures that led to what happened, as well its chilling ramifications. Werth argues quite persuasively that this laid the groundwork for the horrors of the Great Purge a few years later.
It's a very dense book, despite its short length, that I feel like I'll have to reread to unpack everything in it. Still, a pretty gruesome read that introduced me to to the concept of "cannibal by habit," which will haunt my nightmares for a good long while.
Very polished translation from the French (with none of the awkward styling that plagued Farewell.) It would have been easy to sensationalize this, but the historian author is pretty measured and is most interested in the systematic failures that led to what happened, as well its chilling ramifications. Werth argues quite persuasively that this laid the groundwork for the horrors of the Great Purge a few years later.
It's a very dense book, despite its short length, that I feel like I'll have to reread to unpack everything in it. Still, a pretty gruesome read that introduced me to to the concept of "cannibal by habit," which will haunt my nightmares for a good long while.