Absolutely worth the read. This is more memoir style than investigative research, but knowing that going in makes it a very enjoyable piece. Hochschild definitely doesn't disappoint in his writing - having read King Leopold's Ghost first, The Unquiet Ghost is definitely a more personal work, written in first person, not an exposé but a careful probing into a hugely interesting subject - as Hochschild asks throughout the book, were Soviet-era Russians executioners or victims? Is it possible to be both? In a culture of fear and repression, is the transformation from victim to executioner inevitable? It's a very compelling series of questions that the author brings the reader back to throughout his documented travels in Moscow, Karaganda, and Kolyma. The book is written as a prime example of interdepartmental studies, using history and literature as the bases for sociological observation and some really soul-searching metaphysics. I highly recommend this book to the everyday reader as well as to academic historians.