I'll put forth One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. I haven't read anything by the famous Solzhenitsyn and this short book would be a good introduction.
From Goodreads:
First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury
Book Extract:
As usual, at five o'clock that morning reveille was sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters. The intermittent sound barely penetrated the window-panes on which the frost lay two fingers thick, and they ended almost as soon as they'd begun. It was cold outside, and the camp-guard was reluctant to go on beating out the reveille for long.
The clanging ceased, but everything outside still looked like the middle of the night when Ivan Denisovich Shukhov got up to go to the bucket. It was pitch dark except for the yellow light cast on the window by three lamps - two in the outer zone, one inside the camp itself.
And no one came to unbolt the barrack-hut door; there was no sound of the barrack-orderlies pushing a pole into place to lift the barrel of nightsoil and carry it out.
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Longer Extract /
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I'll also second Candide.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
I was thinking of adding a vote to Beloved, but I see Sun Surfer rated it only two stars at Goodreads, so I think I'll pass; at least for now.
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It's well-written and evocative. I wouldn't have minded that it was so dark and disturbing or confusing and difficult to follow if it weren't so heavy-handed.