'A terrifying and unhappy book...' The Guardian This astounding self-portrait covering the whole of Shostakovich's life (1906-1975) was prepared in collaboration with the distinguished Soviet musicologist Solomon Volkov. With the composer's consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent...