In The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In The First Circle was one of my favorite by Solzhenitsyn. The book tells of a few days in the lives of a few prisoners in a special prison, or sharashka. Outside the prison is a man named Innokenty Volodin, who works for the government. He learns of the construction of an atom bomb, and immediately reports it to the American authorities in an attempt to prevent its use. The call is intercepted, but Volodin escapes. The prisoners in a special branch of the sharashka receive orders to find who made the call by the voice.
But, on the whole, the book was less about catching Innokenty, and more, as all great books are, about communicating a deeper meaning to the reader. Solzhenitsyn, himself once a prisoner, causes the reader to feel the emotions felt by prisoners, no matter how green or how seasoned. The hopelessness they feel, the isolation. Against the stark background of the prisons of Soviet Russia, he shows the innate strength that hardship brings out in us all.