Under the circumstances, one might expect her memoir to be strident or self-pitying, but instead she is remarkably calm, good-humored, even witty: "I have been living like a queen: doors are flung open before me wherever I gointo cells, interrogation rooms, the courtroom." Ratushinskaya is a poet of international stature, but this book is not just for enthusiasts of her work. It should be read by everyone interested in international affairs.

Review: "In 1983 in the Soviet Union, twenty-eight-year-old poet and human rights activist Irina Ratushinskaya was sentenced to seven years of hard labor and five years of internal exile. Grey is the Color of Hope is her story of four years spent among a small group of female political prisoners, isolated from other "criminals" because they were considered "especially dangerous." From her first moment among these five women, Irina senses their commitment to ideals and each other. Irina is told she will be required to wear an identity tag. Refusing may cost Irina her only "long" meeting per year with her husband and her visits to the camp kiosk; it may even mean confinement in SHIZO - a place of deprivation and torture that can mean death. Refusing also means claiming herself as a human being: "Yes, we are behind barbed wire, they have stripped us of everything they could, they have torn us away from our friends and families, but unless we acknowledge this as their right, we remain free."

Time and again, these women go on hunger strikes and survive the freezing temperatures of SHIZO to stake their claim to dignity and identity, for themselves and for each other. Their strength is awe-inspiring, their ingenuity and sense of humor beautiful. Do they confiscate your poetry? Write it on a bar of soap, memorize it, tap it through the pipes to the other prisoners in SHIZO. Above all, remember: "Back to freedom with a clear conscience."

 Knopf 0-394-57140-1 / 9780394571409
Hardcover as new condition 

Price: 23.66 USD