Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina

Guzel Yakhina, a Russian novelist, published his debut novel Zuleikha in 2015. It tells the story of different characters, including the main protagonist, who struggle to survive in exile in Siberia between 1930 and 1946. In 2015, the book received the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award as well as the Big Book Award. It's been translated into twenty-one other languages.

When it first came out, this book grabbed Russia's current literature landscape by storm and quickly became a best-seller. It is now being adapted into a television series. This book narrates the harrowing account of Zuleikha, a Muslim lady from a tiny Tatar hamlet who was taken to the Gulag during Stalin's reign. The boat conveying the detainees sinks, and only one officer and Zuleikha survive. They must forge a new existence for themselves in the taiga. Despite the deplorable living conditions, Zuleikha manages to find love and a professional position in which she excels. The story is based in part on factual evidence of those who were dispossessed and expelled as a result of Stalin's collectivization.

Link to read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36295979