A few months back, I grabbed a copy of one of Barnes & Noble’s “Blind Date with a Book” selections. The label described it as “the dystopian novel that inspired Orwell’s 1984,” and I was immediately intrigued. The mystery book turned out to be Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1921 classic, We.

Written in Russia over a century ago, this work of dystopian fiction cemented its place in literary history as one of the first books entirely banned by the Soviet Union. Zamyatin took a considerable personal risk in getting it published, making the novel’s history almost as fascinating as the story itself. It actually was never published in the Soviet Union at all in Zamyatin’s lifetime.

Set in the future, the novel is presented as the journal of D-503, an engineer who has designed the spacecraft known as the Integral. After meeting the enigmatic I-330, he begins to develop human emotions that have been absent from his society for centuries, eventually falling in love with her. The perfectly rational, mathematical worldview he has always embraced begins to unravel as he develops what his world considers a “soul” – a concept long forgotten.

Is the human condition finally returning to mankind? Are the rigid ways of the One State truly the best way to live, or is there something greater waiting beyond absolute order? It’s up to D-503 to find out and – spoiler alert – this story does not have a happy ending.

I’ve always been drawn to dystopian novels, but We’s historical significance adds an entirely new layer to the experience. If you’re looking for a timeless classic that explores freedom, individuality, and what it truly means to be human, this is well worth adding to your reading list.