The has published听the concluding volume of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's two-part memoir of the West,听"," which is a first-ever English translation and offers insight on听the author's life during those years. The memoir was translated by Clare Kitson and Melanie Moore, has听a foreword by Solzhenitsyn expert Daniel Mahoney and is part of the .听
Solzhenitsyn 鈥� widely regarded as one of the most important writers of the last century 鈥� won the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature, and his 1973 masterpiece, 鈥淭he Gulag Archipelago,鈥� exposed the system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. 鈥淏etween Two Millstones鈥� is a two-volume work chronicling Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 20 years of exile in the West 鈥� the pain of being separated from his homeland and the chasm of miscomprehension between him and Western society. , translated by Peter Constantine,听was published by Notre Dame Press in 2018.听
Solzhenitsyn, also author of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," was charged with treason in 1974 and exiled to the West upon publication of "The Gulag Archipelago." He lived quietly and reclusively for nearly two decades in Vermont, where his neighbors fiercely guarded his privacy.
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This long-awaited English translation picks up听Solzhenitsyn鈥檚听remarkable and courageous literary and personal life听in 1978, after his , and concludes in 1994, as he bids farewell to the West and prepares at last to return to his Russian homeland with his brilliant wife, Natalia. Insightful, at times humorous, and always focused on his family, faith听and work, this听book听reveals the whirlwind of literary and humanitarian activity that was taking place at听Solzhenitsyn's rural New England听estate, as well as the author鈥檚 travels and perceptions on political, religious and literary figures of the era.
In 2018 鈥� the centenary of Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 birth and the 40th anniversary of his Harvard commencement address 鈥� Notre Dame launched several initiatives connected to the work of this towering 20th-century writer and thinker. In addition to publications and academic conferences, Notre Dame's听听have among the most extensive holdings in the United States related to the life and work of Solzhenitsyn.
For more information, visit听.
Originally published by at on Oct. 30.