Sofia Petrovna

Describing two years in the life of a widow with a son she adores and a job in a publishing house she likes, the genius of the book is the subtle way Sofia Petrovna, and the reader, sees the horror of Stalin's Purges unfolding against a background of complete and utter ordinariness. Deeply loyal to Mother Russia, Sofia Petrovna begins by thinking that the arrest, the disappearances, the cruel incompetence of officials, are all a mistake. Even when her son is arrested, she continues to believe in Stalin's benevolence. Yet she grows increasingly bewildered and cannot understand what is happening.