Review: Polina Barskova on Varlam Shalamov

Who was going to read this strange prose, so weightless that it seemed about to fly away into space…? —Varlam Shalamov

Varlam Shalamov ought to be considered one of the most important writers of the Soviet century—and also one of the most contested, to this day inviting polarized opinions and interpretations. On the one hand his magnum opus, Kolyma Stor…