Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a prisoner in the Stalinist labor camp. He gets up early every morning for work in the cold winter season, but one day morning he gets sick and decides to sleep more thinking that the guard on duty is kind enough not send him to the solitary confinement cell,which is also known as “the hole” for not waking up early. The book starts with Shukhov’s daily struggles in prison, and then, it starts shifting to Shukhov’s life including his group Gang 104 and their life in labor camp.
