A new edition of one
of the most compelling and beautifully crafted memoirs of the last hundred
years, by one of Russia’s most prominent and courageous anticommunist
dissidents.
“This book is
important.” —Ronald Reagan
“A landmark book and
a human document that remains vital.” —Tom Stoppard
“If human bravery
were a book, it would be To Build a Castle.”—Garry Kasparov
A major document in
the literature of human rights, Vladimir Bukovksy’s To Build a Castle is
a legendary memoir that has been hailed as a vital classic by figures ranging
from Ronald Reagan to Tom Stoppard to Garry Kasparov.
At the age of twenty,
Vladimir Bukovsky was falsely declared insane and committed to a psychiatric
hospital—standard practice for communism's critics in 1963. But the quack
doctors and brutal guards who kept him captive didn't realize: Bukovsky wasn't
locked up with them. They were locked up with Bukovsky.
In this haunting work,
Bukovsky details with equal parts burning outrage and bitter humor the cruelties
imposed upon Soviet prisoners of conscience. But he also recounts how he found
his inner strength and built a fortress around it—the imaginary castle of the
title—in which he could remain safe from the daily assaults on his body and
mind.
In To Build a
Castle, Bukovsky offers powerful firsthand testimony to the importance of
personal integrity and perseverance under seemingly boundless oppression and
abuse. For nearly fifty years, Bukovsky's story has inspired dissidents,
prisoners, and others trapped by circumstance with a profound truth: Even in
chains, you can be free.
A worldwide
bestseller when first published in 1978, this new edition, masterfully
translated from the Russian by Michael Scammell, includes a major introduction
by acclaimed political philosopher Daniel J. Mahoney.
