LITERATURE & THE WRITING LIFE

Solzhenitsyn’s August 1914: How Fiction Enables Us to Get Closer to the Truth

Why great literature is so satisfying to read.

1974 photo of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Bert Verhoeff/ Anefo — Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s August 1914, a historical novel about events on the Eastern Front during World War I. For American readers it’s a perspective on the war…