Good Book Recommendation

Based on the "back cover" of this book, I wasn't sure I'd like it, but it was great story. Really makes me thankful for the bonds I share with family and friends...

NY Times synopsis, "On his 80th birthday, Alexander Bayliss walks through Myshkino, the Russian village that has been his home for 20 years. A British citizen falsely arrested for spying, Bayliss was reported dead to his family and spent 20 years in a gulag....(Bleeped because it will give away part of the story)... As he makes his way around the village, he thinks back to his time in prison and he recalls both its misery and the deep bonds he formed with his work group leader, Kirill. A promise to visit Kirill's daughter, Frosya, upon his release brought Bayliss to Myshkino, and Frosya's adoption of him as both surrogate father and son kept him there. He made a place for himself by teaching English to the village's schoolchildren and watched as they grew up in a Russia that gradually shook off its shackles. As we accompany Bayliss on a tour through his present and past, this meditative, unadorned novel, short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1998, raises questions about home, freedom and the meaning of a life that resonate long after the final page is turned.