One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This small book is a gem and a work of genius. The cold, the hunger, the hopelessness, the injustice are made palpable by the understated mention of a hot stove, a crust of bread, a gift of tobacco, a remembered promise.

This one day in an interminable imprisonment speaks of all the days, all the prisoners, all the lost years. And there is a ray of hope, a breath of warmth, an extra ration, a desire to live that leads to the next day and the next.