China

Each night, he composed stories in his head, memorizing every line. In the day, he secretly scribbled down on cigarette paper the tales he had created in the past night. Dmitry Stonov was already a well-known Russian author when he was sentenced to a Siberian work camp in 1949. Denied all writing materials, he developed and memorized stories at night. During the day while he worked in the prison library, he removed the tobacco from his cigarettes and recorded his stories in tiny script on the rescued papers. These Stonov managed to smuggle to his family. Terrified that discovery would lead to Stonov's execution, his wife and son buried the stories and hoped for his return. In 1954, when Stonov was released, he transcribed the stories into a notebook. Upon his death in 1962, the stories were concealed again. When Stonov's son Leonid and Leonid's wife Natasha finally won their freedom in 1990, they brought this remarkable manuscript with them to the United States. In the Past Night brings gripping clarity not only to prison life, but also those imprisoning aspects that pervaded every level of Russian society—fear, betrayal, loneliness, the death of hope. Yet Stonov's simple, lyrical compassion allows the reader to glimpse the transcending human spirit.