1936, novel, Macmillan
We the Living
Set in Petrograd after the Russian Revolution, it follows Kira Argounova, a young woman who wants to be an engineer, and the two men she loves, Leo Kovalensky and the Communist Andrei Taganov. It is Rand's portrait of what a totalitarian state does to the individuals inside it.
Rand's first novel and, by her own account, the closest she came to an autobiography.
Number 3 in our suggested reading order: Her most personal book, drawn from her own life in Soviet Russia.
Characters
- Kira Argounova Protagonist
- Leo Kovalensky Kira's lover
- Andrei Taganov Communist officer