Notes from a Dead House

Mar 4, 2026 6:29 PM

Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky,Richard Pevear,Richard Pevear,Larissa Volokhonsky

In 1849 the young Fyodor Dostoevsky was sentenced to four years' hard labour in a Siberian prison camp for advocating socialism. Notes from a Dead House (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead), the novel he wrote on his release, tells of shocking conditions, brutal punishments, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom and hope; it describes the daily life of the prison community, the feuds and betrayals, the moments of comedy, the unexpected acts of kindness.

To avoid censorship, Dostoevsky made his protagonist a common criminal, but the perspective is unmistakably his own. As a member of the nobility he had been despised by his fellow prisoners, most of whom were peasants - an experience shared in the book by Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov, a nobleman who has killed his wife. Like his creator, Goryanchikov undergoes a transformation over the course of his ordeal, as he discovers 'deep, strong, beautiful natures' amongst even the roughest of the convicts. Notes from a Dead House shows the prison camp as a tragedy for the inmates and a tragedy for Russia. It endures today as a profound meditation on freedom.

Reviews

Bad Habits is an absolute joy of a read, carefully balancing comedy ("I'm a feminist! I place bets on women's basketball games.") with a nuanced take on female friendships and being a teenage girl judged unfavourably by nuns, priests, peers and the world at large. Heart-warming and hilarious, this is a book you need on your shelves in these bleak times.

—— Irish Times

This snarky feminist treat is properly laugh-out-loud funny

—— The Bookseller

Funny, fierce and feminist, Bad Habits is full of big characters, big heart, and even bigger laughs. Flynn Meaney has somehow packed laughs into every line while still taking on everything from priests to the patriarchy. I loved it

—— Beth Garrod

Bruce's spooky novel is lascivious and bloody, a tale of sexual awakening and dark desires that wreathes its leafy tendrils seductively around you, then tightens them until they start to strangle.

—— James Lovegrove , FINANCIAL TIMES

Dark and immersive; a feast of storytelling that lingers long after the last morsel's been consumed.

—— SAM LLOYD, author of The Memory Wood

This beguiling and unsettling debut had me hooked from the first page . . . a unique, strange and defiant folk horror story which lingers long in the memory.

—— DAILY EXPRESS

A bewitching, beguiling, and deeply unsettling tale of one woman's strange life. It will ensnare you from page one and keep you riveted until the end.

—— CAITLIN STARLING, author of The Luminous Dead

In this storytelling masterclass, everything is inverted.

—— DAILY MAIL

A glorious, pitch-black fairytale of a book. Lush, strange and defiant. As soon as I finished it, I went straight back to the start and read it again.

—— KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Things We Say in the Dark

Odd and unsettling, this might not be for everyone, but we thought it was magic.

—— HEAT magazine

Dark and magical, one of the best books I've read this year.

—— Books, Bones & Buffy

A fairytale, a psychological portrait and a bleak drama.

—— New Books Magazine

A brilliant and sinister debut.

—— Ginger Nuts of Horror

Beautiful, strange . . . hideously dark, delights in unsettling.

—— The Bookbag

Creepy and disturbing right from the start.

—— Spooky Mrs Green

A disturbing but brilliant narrative . . . a rare treat.

—— WOMAN'S WEEKLY

A great tapestry of busy-ness . . . Walter's descriptive passage are marvellous

—— Francesca Carington , Sunday Telegraph

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