The story is about a mid-20th-century Russian love triangle (two men, one woman) set in the Gulag. Lots of fun. The house in question is for conjugal visits in the prison, thus the bed. This was my first collaboration on a book jacket in many years with my colleague Peter Mendelsund. It was his idea to actually build a three-dimensional “room,” which Geoff Spear then shot. There was no digital manipulation—you are actually looking into a “house.”

“The overall design draws us into this forbidding place; the little color Stalin portrait leads us there—very effective.”