Arthur Koestler’s best-known, and best, novel is one of the most powerful political works of the 20th Century. It explores the manner in which the leaders of the Soviet brand of Communism – the country is never explicitly mentioned – ruthlessly demolished the very individuals who had enabled the revolution.

The figure of Rubashov, who is arrested and jailed at the beginning of Darkness at Noon, is a composite symbol of the old Bolsheviks who believed in the ideology of Communism and allowed themselves to perform many atrocities with the notion that they were doing it for the betterment of future generations.

An extraordinarily heartfelt exposé of the contradictions and misuse of Communism, born out of Koestler’s personal disenchantment after devoting all his life till then to the Communist case, Darkness at Noon disturbs, disrobes, and devastates as it lays bare a "chilling tyranny".

Published in German in 1940. Translated into English by Daphne Hardy, published in 1940.