THE TORMENTORS

A novel of a march to Siberia, which in its overtones of faith, human rights and justice transcends the familiarity of the material. For here, the political prisoners in their very helplessness are the means by which the military guard is driven mad, through which beliefs, ideas and metaphysics are explored. En route to Tourmany, Oblast 6, the gold mines on a remote frontier, the miseries center around a musician, a doctor, a priest, a ballet dancer, and other assorted exiles, and as a counterbalance uses solicitious Kudriavtsev, the officer in charge, who is only following out orders. That there are deaths, tortures, love affairs, storms, sufferings and mental anguish, is implicit, but the accent on the illumination of human relationships, philosophy, and even political dialectic makes this of superior intellectual interest.