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Why Solzhenitsyn Matters: A Personal Reflection On His Impactful Writing

Sunitta Raman
5 min readNov 13, 2024

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Why good writers will always be remembered…

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Walking through the hallowed portals of my old school library, I began searching for something interesting to read, but unable to find anything I decided to read the famous Nancy Drew series which was famous and popular in the early 80’s.

Seeing a group of girls coming to return their books I ran to take a look, but again disappointment writ large on my face I sat down reluctantly. My gaze suddenly fell on a corner bookshelf that preferred to remain anonymous.

No student had touched that particular shelf for months as the thin film of dust and the cobwebs spoke of its unkempt reputation. I looked closely to find a large book with the name Cancer Ward written on its spine and pulled the novel to find the name of the author Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn written in large print.

I had not heard of this writer and a frown on my face suggested I put the book back to where it belonged, as the title gave me sharp signals of death and morbidity. But something inside me urged the voracious reader to explore this new writer at that time, and I have not regretted it to this day.

As a Class X student reading a novel by a writer who was by now a world-famous novelist and a Nobel Prize Winner, my…

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Sunitta Raman
Sunitta Raman

Written by Sunitta Raman

Freelance Writer, Journalist, Editor and Proofreader with more than twenty years experience in creative writing.

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