In delicate pencil drawings, Maslov describes what it was like to grow up in this beautiful but brutal corner of the U.S.S.R. Born to a culture whose hollow socialist ideals stand at odds with the harsh material reality, I was deeply affected by Maslov’s insistent drive to give his life hope and meaning. That his story was published at all is, in itself, remarkable. Emmanuel Carrère writes in the “Afterword” to Siberia that,

In Stitches, David Small’s own traumatic history is eerily brought to life. Being a new mom and preternaturally hypersensitive about protecting kids, there were times when I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get through this book. By the end, however, I was moved by Small’s younger self and his courageous rejection of the culture of repression enforced in his troubled family. Small draws each disturbing chapter from his bleak childhood with fine, expressive lines and bold grey washes. His depiction of his mother – her face permanently pinched in an expression of barely suppressed rage – is particularly striking.