# Shock Therapy

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/varlam-shalamov/shock-therapy/9780718196455

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![Shock Therapy](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/varlam-shalamov/shock-therapy_978-07-1819-645-5-3d8f334c.webp?v=2026-10-17%2002%3A47%3A55)

- Book: [Shock Therapy](https://www.bookquiver.com/varlam-shalamov/shock-therapy) ([Shock Therapy.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/varlam-shalamov/shock-therapy.md))
- Authors: [Varlam Shalamov](https://www.bookquiver.com/varlam-shalamov)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-07-1819-645-5
- Published: 2014-03-06
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

Merzlakov, once a robust stable-hand, now fights hunger, pain and exhaustion after a year and a half at a labour camp. An enormous man given little food, he sees the larger men dying first, their bodies conquered by starvation. In his desperation for survival, he begins a yearlong struggle of pain and injury. It ends with the inscrutable and punctilious Dr Peter Ivanovich. In a curious mix of empathy and haunting objectivity, this short story describes a snapshot of life in a Russian labour-camp. Written after Varlam Shalamov's own experiences at a gulag, it is one episode in the many that make up Kolyma Tales.