A truly extraordinary first novel set in 1926 on Solovetsky, the most famous of the Soviet-era prison islands located in the middle of the White Sea.

Solovetsky is an inaccessible place of detention. There are a diverse set of prisoners: political prisoners, blue collar criminals, priests, people from the gentry. Everyone is forced to work in some capacity.

The plot is deceptively simple: a young political prisoner is conscripted to help another prisoner, formerly a detective, solve the murder of another inmate. But as the mystery unravels, we get a complicated, fascinating cross-section of the prisoners at their various occupations (some far more privileged than others), gorgeous descriptions of the island life, its harsh climate and privations, and incredible portraits of some of the larger-than-life prisoners—all if it in prose of a tremendously high quality. But perhaps most tantalizing of all is a subplot involving precious icons that have been collected by the prison’s museum but are mysteriously disappearing.