A review by yahyaelkinani
The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.0

The story is written through the lens of Aleksander Petrovich, a man who murdered his wife and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In prison Aleksander meets a great variety of people. He talks extensively about his experiences with these other convicts who are convicted for all different type of crimes, such as murderers, forgerers, or rebels. The book is beautiful as it presents an lens I have never encountered before. The people that Aleksander meets, he describes them, talks about them and explains why they are here with him as convicts. He interacts with them and makes you curious about them. It felt as I was the one meeting those people and getting to know them and why they ended up here with me. He also talks about prison life itself and how it was to endure it (seemed pretty comfortable surprisingly enough). Another beautiful addition of the book is that it pulls you to 19th century Russia. You hear the issues of peasants, the way people thought, and behaved and all sorts of things. The book does not have a plot line, it just talks about his experience in prison, a biographical account of some sort, related to Dostoevsky’s own prison experience. Overall, it is was a very enjoyable read.