Penguin Pockets: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

What if you have spent your whole life doing everything right, only to discover that it means nothing when it matters most? Ivan Ilyich has built the life he was supposed to want: a respectable career, a comfortable home, a good social position and a family. But when a sudden illness forces him to confront his own mortality, the certainties he has lived by begin to fall apart. As death draws closer, Ivan is forced to look beyond appearances and ask whether he has truly lived—or simply followed the life expected of him. Brief, powerful and deeply affecting, Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich is an unforgettable meditation on death, regret, and the search for a life that feels meaningful.