[1] The story is set in Stalinist Russia, a totalitarian state with prison camps in the icy north.

[1] The story centres on a Russian boy named Yuri who in school is taught that the revolution liberated his country, and that the new leaders are always working for greater good.

And one day Yuri is considered an 'enemy of the state' for saying a few careless words, and is sent to a camp in the frozen wastelands of Siberia.

The Scotsman rated it "without doubt one of the top novels of the year" and the Sunday Times reviewer wrote: "This ambitious book is a rare achievement...

This book is subtle, stimulating and morally complex, but it is also evocative and convincing: we feel keenly the chill of both soulless hegemony and its frozen wastes".