{"product_id":"koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million-9781400032204","title":"Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million","description":"\u003cb\u003eA brilliant weave of personal involvement, vivid biography and political insight, \u003ci\u003eKoba the Dread\u003c\/i\u003e is the successor to Martin Amis's award-winning memoir, \u003ci\u003eExperience\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKoba the Dread\u003c\/i\u003e captures the appeal of one of the most powerful belief systems of the 20th century -- one that spread through the world, both captivating it and staining it red. It addresses itself to the central lacuna of 20th-century thought: the indulgence of Communism by the intellectuals of the West. In between the personal beginnings and the personal ending, Amis gives us perhaps the best one-hundred pages ever written about Stalin: Koba the Dread, Iosif the Terrible. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The author's father, Kingsley Amis, though later reactionary in tendency, was a \"Comintern dogsbody\" (as he would come to put it) from 1941 to 1956. His second-closest, and then his closest friend (after the death of the poet Philip Larkin), was Robert Conquest, our leading Sovietologist whose book of 1968, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Terror\u003c\/i\u003e, was second only to Solzhenitsyn's \u003ci\u003eThe Gulag Archipelago\u003c\/i\u003e in undermining the USSR. The present memoir explores these connections. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Stalin said that the death of one person was tragic, the death of a million a mere \"statistic.\" \u003ci\u003eKoba the Dread\u003c\/i\u003e, during whose course the author absorbs a particular, a familial death, is a rebuttal of Stalin's aphorism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-16153214\"\u003eMartin Amis\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/09\/2003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.69lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.02h x 5.22w x 0.69d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781400032204\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1400032202\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO010000\"\u003ePolitical\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-BIO\"\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Autobiography\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-BIO006000\"\u003eHistorical\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS032000\"\u003eRussia | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMartin Amis is the bestselling author of several books, including \u003cb\u003eLondon Fields, Money, The Information\u003c\/b\u003e, and \u003cb\u003eExperience\u003c\/b\u003e. He lives in London.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44519911784685,"sku":"9781400032204","price":24.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_201b32a3-1244-4514-b52e-55d7f9d26205.jpg?v=1701266387","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/koba-the-dread-laughter-and-the-twenty-million-9781400032204","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}