The Gulag Archipelago (Abridged) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Paperback)

A survivor's monumental account of the Soviet prison-camp system, built from his own experience and hundreds of testimonies, in the author's own authorised abridgement. A study of how ordinary people become part of evil, and how some refuse.

Read it if: you want to understand what unchecked power does, and what real courage looks like.

Third Shelf — a heavyweight. Save it for when your attention is back in shape.