Under a Blood Red Sky

by Kate Furnivall

First published 2008

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4.2(733)

Siberia, 1933. Sofia Morozova is imprisoned in the brutal Davinsky labour camp, where hunger, cold and forced work have reduced survival to a daily calculation. Her closest friend Anna sustains them with memories of Petrograd and stories of Vasily, the revolutionary she once loved. When Anna becomes gravely ill, Sofia promises to escape and find the man who has remained at the centre of her friend's hopes.

Outside the camp, Sofia discovers a Soviet Union transformed by Stalinist rule. Her search carries her through factories, villages and communities shaped by state control, fear and secrecy, but she also encounters unexpected loyalty and affection. As her feelings and obligations begin to conflict, the novel turns an escape story into a wider portrait of life under early Stalinism and the personal compromises demanded by repression.