This literary classic is quite literally what it says it is; a single day in the life of a prisoner in a Stalinist labour camp in 1951. While this book is fiction, the author himself was arrested and imprisoned in 1945 for criticising Stalin in a private letter. Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years in a labour camp. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich highlights the importance of a piece of bread, an extra bowl of soup, and the luxury of a book. It is an incredibly powerful, exhausting, important book you must read.

First published in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012.