Darkness at Noon

My favorite book this year and one of the best I've ever read. Perhaps it had a more powerful effect on me since I spent several months in the archives in China reading the reports of the Communist treason elimination bureau, but this work brilliantly captures the essence of the mad logic of a Communist purge.

Tony Judt has a great essay about Arthur Koestler and his importance found as the first chapter in part one, in his collection “Reappraisals” which I found very informative.