Nobel Laureate for Literature, campaigner for human rights, advocate of free speech and merciless critic of the Soviet system, Alexander Solzhenitsyn has lived a life which will serve as a permanent reminder of the crimes committed in the name of Communism. A completely absorbing portrait of one of the few defining figures of the 20th century. D.M. Thomas's biography is the story not just of one of the century's most influential writers but the history of Russia itself.