A review by beulah_devaney
Grey is the Color of Hope by Ирина Ратушинская, Irina Ratushinskaya

4.0

A fascinating account of Irina Ratushinskaya time in a 1980s Soviet prison camp, that also manages to evoke some kind of Enid Blyton/Louisa May Alcott-esq boarding school romp. That isn't meant to sound flippant and Ratushinskaya doesn't sugar-coated anything. Her account is brutal and she details force feeding, strip searches, hunger strikes, beatings, KGB blackmail and psychological abuse. But she also talks about the camaraderie between her and her fellow prisoners. There are midnight feasts, food parcels, salads picked from their illegal garden. They write poems and embroider clothes for birthdays, they chase each other around in the snow and take a great deal of pleasure in thwarting their guards. It's a strange combination but very engaging and worth a read.