Goli Otok: The Island of Death, first released in English in 1984, are the series of letters of the Bulgarian poet laureate Venko Markovski (1915-1988) written after his release from the island prison of Goli Otok in the Adriatic Sea. Markovski was sentenced to five-year's hard-labor after publishing an anti-Tito poem and for his pro-Soviet Union leanings. The sometimes heart-wrenching letters describe his imprisonment, the treatment of prisoners, the political situation of the time, and his longing for freedom and family.
