To Build a Castle

“This book isimportant.” —Ronald Reagan

“A landmark book anda human document that remains vital.” —Tom Stoppard

“If human braverywere a book, it would be To Build a Castle.”—Garry Kasparov

A major document inthe literature of human rights, Vladimir Bukovksy’s To Build a Castle isa legendary memoir that has been hailed as a vital classic by figures rangingfrom Ronald Reagan to Tom Stoppard to Garry Kasparov.

At the age of twenty,Vladimir Bukovsky was falsely declared insane and committed to a psychiatrichospital—standard practice for communism's critics in 1963. But the quackdoctors and brutal guards who kept him captive didn't realize: Bukovsky wasn'tlocked up with them. They were locked up with Bukovsky.

In this haunting work,Bukovsky details with equal parts burning outrage and bitter humor the crueltiesimposed upon Soviet prisoners of conscience. But he also recounts how he foundhis inner strength and built a fortress around it—the imaginary castle of thetitle—in which he could remain safe from the daily assaults on his body andmind.

In To Build aCastle, Bukovsky offers powerful firsthand testimony to the importance ofpersonal integrity and perseverance under seemingly boundless oppression andabuse. For nearly fifty years, Bukovsky's story has inspired dissidents,prisoners, and others trapped by circumstance with a profound truth: Even inchains, you can be free.

A worldwidebestseller when first published in 1978, this new edition, masterfullytranslated from the Russian by Michael Scammell, includes a major introductionby acclaimed political philosopher Daniel J. Mahoney.