New Earth

12 hrs. 14 min.

Language Russian

Author Arif Aliyev

Narrator Nadezhda Vinokurova

Description

2013. In the whole world, the death penalty has been abolished. Prisons are overcrowded, and more and more resources are needed to house those sentenced to life imprisonment.
International organizations decide to conduct an experiment, and Russia provides territory in a remote place—on the New Earth archipelago—where a small settlement is set up with everything necessary for independent living. The first group of prisoners is taken to the island from Russia. After 20 years, in 2033, everyone will be able to file a petition for clemency. But on the very first day, a slaughter begins, and the law comes into effect: “The last one—dead.”

Former school teachers, welders, bandits—people who have lost any understanding of the line separating good from evil. When the concentration of pain, madness, and hatred exceeds the maximum threshold, hell begins—no wonder one of the characters with manic persistence studies the structure of the afterlife. What happens when they are left on the island all by themselves is simply the predictable ending of a drama…

Outcome: a heavy, grim, expertly written book. Absolutely not recommended for those for whom reading is primarily a way to relax and take one’s mind off things.