“What makes this diary so powerful is that Reicher dwells on very little—for it is all so crazy—and tells the facts and his story with dispatch, so that we are so caught up in events that we begin to feel as if we are living them with him, that we have somehow been dropped into a Beckett or Ionesco play where absurdity at its most extreme is reality. . . . We can give thanks to all who worked to bring Country of Ash into our lives, then read it with care, and heed its warnings.”