Books Sustained Him
The value that Aleksei A. Navalny placed on the ability to read in prison is reflected in the experience of Books Beyond Bars's clients. In National Reading Month, help us bring "joy to the joyless."
Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny died in prison on February 16 “alone with his books,” writes Anton Troianovski in a report for the New York Times. Although Russian authorities restricted his medical care and nutrition, holding him in solitary confinement for 300 days, Navalny’s complaint was about something else entirely: he was allowed only one book in his cell. “I want to have ten books in my cell,” he had told them, so he could read them simultaneously and “switch between them.”
According to Troianovski, books were central to Mr. Navalny’s prison life. In prison, Navalny comprehended more profoundly the dark significance of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn’s novel about Soviet-era gulags. He cried as he read a biography of Robert F. Kennedy. He bragged about having read 44 books in English. He sought (and gave) recommendations. Books, the report confirms, “sustained him.”
Navalny’s relationship with books in prison mirrors that of many Books Beyond Bars clients. Hardly a week goes by without a thank-you letter that relates how nourishing, stimulating, and joy-inducing it can be to receive a book in the mail.
Last year, a client named John asked us for graphic novels from his favorite series, Spawn by Todd MacFarlane. When John received his first Spawn graphic novel from us, he wrote:
When I went to the package room yesterday I was like a kid in a toy store. So excited! When I got the book I lit up and haven’t stopped smiling yet. THANK YOU SO MUCH! You bring joy to the joyless.
A month later, after we had sent another Spawn book, John sent us a letter stating “I can’t express how good it feels to receive these graphic novels. […] I’m smiling just thinking about it!” In his artwork (pictured below), the characters from the series come to life around the reader, transporting him to another place.
What makes BBB so special is that we send our clients the exact books they want to read. In John’s case, since Spawn was not represented in our library, we ordered the books especially for him.
Our clients have literary interests as diverse as anyone’s, and it is our mission to ensure that they can nurture these interests in spite of their incarceration, which denies them access to bookstores, libraries, and the Internet.
We rely primarily on monetary donations from our supporters to keep our program going. We receive hundreds of requests per month and—at an average of about $12 per request—spend thousands of dollars per month. Costs are increasing each year. We received 70% more requests in 2023 than in 2022, and we anticipate an even greater uptick in 2024.
This March, National Reading Month, we are asking for your support so that we can continue to do our work. Please consider donating what you can to our GoFundMe campaign. Every dollar helps sustain our clients.