-- A jailed man watches his persecutors kill a man a day until he confesses to a crime he did not commit; a bloodbath ensues when a fourteenth-century Jew refuses to repent his faith; the editor of an Ukrainian paper impersonates a priest to prove to a visiting writer the existence of religious ceremonies under the Soviet regime. Juxtaposing journalistic prose with high lyricism, historical figures and invented situations, this grisly book is "a stunning statement on political persecution" (World Literature Today).