Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak & translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Doctor Zhivago — first published in Italy in 1957 from a manuscript smuggled out of the Soviet Union — is set in the early part of the 20th century, with an epilogue in World War Two. The story centres on Yuri Zhivago and his love affair with the beautiful Lara. With characters buffeted by revolution, civil war and famine, the novel raises questions about individual agency and moral responsibility amid such upheaval, about fate and coincidence. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Doctor Zhivago, but declined it in order to avoid exile. Allegedly, Khrushchev read the novel after he was ousted from power, and regretted having banned it.