The Death of Ivan Ilych

A succinct, masterfully written novella true to its title. Tolstoy brings so much humanity into the story and characters, revealing all the things people notice and think but never speak about. Reminds me of Our Town a bit. Both are slightly removed from our time, but remain completely relevant. Ivan Ilych begs the reader to look at themselves and their world, what they care about and the consequences of their choices. The selfish perspectives we all seem to be stuck with are exposed, and their fruit is as ugly as you'd expect.

I really enjoyed it, so much that I'm eager to start a longer work of his. Gotta ease my way into War and Peace with Revelations or something.