--- product_id: 3861769 title: "We the Living" price: "SAR 47" currency: SAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/3861769-we-the-living store_origin: SA region: Saudi Arabia --- # We the Living **Price:** SAR 47 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** We the Living - **How much does it cost?** SAR 47 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.sa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/3861769-we-the-living) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description We the Living [Rand, Ayn, Peikoff, Leonard, Peikoff, Leonard] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. We the Living Review: Not as good as Atlas Shrugged but infinitesimally better than The Fountainhead. - Everything Ayn Rand has written transcends time. This book even more so. If people wonder what the "first free country" will look like if they continue to elect political leaders who have a "death premise",such as they have, all they need to do is read this book and they'll know. I just hope it's not too late. I truly believe if We The Living and Atlas Shrugged had been mandatory reading for JR/Senior High school students, respectively,even as short a time as 10-13 Yrs ago, our country would be going in an entirely different direction. Or at the least we'd be in better position to turn it around. Unfortunately, I believe our children and grandchildren have an unimaginably more difficult fight ahead of them because of the socialistic ideals of the "God-Fearing Mystics" and "Selfless Humanitarians", leaders our generation voted into power,who's ideals are being spread like a plague across this amazing country and turned into policy as this is being written. I wish I could go back in time to show my parents, and my younger self, the warning signs to look for. But as a Romantic Realist, I know I can only try to change what happens tomorrow and the day after that. And the only way to do that is by spreading the philosophical ideals, the morals and the Life Premise that I learned from Ayn Rand. This story is about as close to an autobiographical account of Ayn Rands life in the USSR as we will ever know. The ideals, the values of our young heroine are all here in young Kira. Her younger sister drew caricatures just as Irena did. The physical description of her Uncle Vasili is based on her father. The young character Leo, the man Kira loves, is fashioned after AR's first love in college. A character who became so entwined with the real Leo that even though she disliked the name, she couldn't separate the two and couldn't change the name. The Russia she sees...you see. The Russia she lived...you live.This Russia is not a character, but the real backdrop to her story and played a big role in who the person Ayn and "Kira" became. It is a love story. Two totally different men with different lives and seemingly two very different philosophies on life. The only thing they have in common is their "soul" (not a spiritual soul"). These two men, the way the act, react, and how they see life is what draws Kira to them. When the country takes away everything you own, uses you as an example of the worst of humanity, takes away your freedom to be who you are, say what you think, do what you want, live as you want to live ...what do you do? This is the premise of the story. What does communism do to your soul? What will it do to any country and to its people. It crushes their spirit. Destroys the individual with their hopes an dreams and desires. None of these things are allowed in a collective society. Every idea, thought, desire, anything that makes you an individual is stomped out of you. Every breath you take is not your own. It belongs to your comrades, your brothers and sisters. There is no "I" in socialism, communism, totalitarianism, whatever label you give it. There is only We. Spoiler alert..... Ayn Rand takes you from the beginning to the ending of the lives of these 3 young people. You will feel what they feel: joy, pain, disbelief, helplessness, hope, defiance, hopelessness, bitter cold, disgust, fear, courage beyond imagination, love without limits and the utter dispair when everything is lost and you are totally and completely alone. You will go through the ups and downs of the lives they lived, will understand who they are and what they believe in. Will wonder WHY did she do that to a beloved character, cry if you are anything like me at the loss of life and be completely in shock at how the story ends. This is no fairytale, so there is no fairytale ending. You will understand when you read her epilogue why she had to end it as she did. But you will still cry for Kira. For everything she lost and, at the very end, what she found. You only have 3 Choices when you live in a world that crushes who you are. When there's nothing left. 1. suicide- it finally breaks you 2. close off your mind completely. The only thing you have that they can't take is your mind. So you drown who you are with alcohol, parties, do anything to make yourself forget what you can never have. You don't compromise, you don't bend but you break. Who you are disappears and you become an empty shell of a human being. It is like a drawn out suicide. 3. You run away, try to escape. You neither compromise what you believe, bend or break. You don't lose hope or give in to the Life you know is out there for you. You run until you can't run anymore and you escape or die trying. Either way you remain unconquered. Each of these 3 characters took a different road. Each made a different choice and each has a different ending. AR explains why each of the 3 had to go down the road they did. This is a tragic love story but more importantly, it is a tragic "Life" story. A tragedy that seems more and more possible in the country that our original leaders created to be free, one in which we believe the promise that "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness" can not be taken from us. We need to open our eyes. Open our neighbors eyes, the World's eyes because this could easily become America if we stay on the path we are on. We outlawed slavery a long time ago. We can't permit it to come back for the sake of the collective. "I" must always remain the most important word in our society. AYN RAND taught me that. Review: A novel that is still very relevant for our times - The only other novel I have read from Ayn Rand is Atlas Shrugged. I believe this novel was written at the start of her writing career. The difference in style, characterization and approach is notable compared to Atlas. Even though it focuses on life in Soviet Russia, this is very much a book for our time. For this reason alone it is worth reading. We The Living centers around Kira Argounova as she and her family are coming to grips with leading a new life in Soviet Russia. Two other characters also come into focus as Kira becomes romantically involved with both - Leo and Andrei. I was quite surprised with Rand's treatment of her characters in this novel. While they felt like symbols and mouthpieces for Rand's objectivism philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, here they feel authentic and relatable i.e. real human beings. She does an excellent job highlighting the insidiousness of the Communist collectivist philosophy and how it slowly changes or outright destroys the individual and his/her individuality and humanity. The three main characters all deal with the oppressiveness of life in Soviet Russia in different ways all leading to losing something precious. Not even love or the simple need for honest human interaction and emotional bonding can survive. This is not only apparent with Kira and Leo but Sonia and Pavel as well. Even family bonds are destroyed. See Victor as an example. Reading this novel, one should be able to see the parallels between the communist approach to free speech and egalitarianism and today’s smothering political correctness and quest for equality. The chilling result of all this is the sacrifice of morals and values in the name of a greater good. Sonia says the following in the novel: “Science is in our own calloused hands. We have outgrown that old bourgeois prejudice about the objective impartiality of science. Science is not impartial. Science is a weapon of the class struggle.” Today we see this reflected in Environmentalism and the many scandals surrounding tampering of data used to advocate for global warming. A friend was said to me: “Does it matter whether we know global warming is true? We have to do something!” Truth and or evidence for a course of action is no longer necessary if the action is deemed noble in and of itself. Another example from Sonia: “Hearty proletarian greetings to all! And particularly to our comrade women. There’s no sight I like better than a new woman student, a woman emancipated from the old slavery of dishes and diapers.” The parallels to some aspects of modern day feminism should be readily apparent. In summary, those who disliked Rand’s characterizations and excessive monologues on philosophy in Atlas Shrugged should give this book a whirl. It is far more nuanced and in the vein of a traditional literary work of fiction. For those who enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, this book is well worth visiting to witness Rand’s first baby steps in attempting to understand and articulate her beliefs. The difference in style, expression and characterization is fascinating. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #73,863 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #203 in Classic American Literature #1,300 in Classic Literature & Fiction #4,333 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,791 Reviews | ## Images ![We the Living - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61WhcVoCPnL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not as good as Atlas Shrugged but infinitesimally better than The Fountainhead. *by K***N on July 4, 2014* Everything Ayn Rand has written transcends time. This book even more so. If people wonder what the "first free country" will look like if they continue to elect political leaders who have a "death premise",such as they have, all they need to do is read this book and they'll know. I just hope it's not too late. I truly believe if We The Living and Atlas Shrugged had been mandatory reading for JR/Senior High school students, respectively,even as short a time as 10-13 Yrs ago, our country would be going in an entirely different direction. Or at the least we'd be in better position to turn it around. Unfortunately, I believe our children and grandchildren have an unimaginably more difficult fight ahead of them because of the socialistic ideals of the "God-Fearing Mystics" and "Selfless Humanitarians", leaders our generation voted into power,who's ideals are being spread like a plague across this amazing country and turned into policy as this is being written. I wish I could go back in time to show my parents, and my younger self, the warning signs to look for. But as a Romantic Realist, I know I can only try to change what happens tomorrow and the day after that. And the only way to do that is by spreading the philosophical ideals, the morals and the Life Premise that I learned from Ayn Rand. This story is about as close to an autobiographical account of Ayn Rands life in the USSR as we will ever know. The ideals, the values of our young heroine are all here in young Kira. Her younger sister drew caricatures just as Irena did. The physical description of her Uncle Vasili is based on her father. The young character Leo, the man Kira loves, is fashioned after AR's first love in college. A character who became so entwined with the real Leo that even though she disliked the name, she couldn't separate the two and couldn't change the name. The Russia she sees...you see. The Russia she lived...you live.This Russia is not a character, but the real backdrop to her story and played a big role in who the person Ayn and "Kira" became. It is a love story. Two totally different men with different lives and seemingly two very different philosophies on life. The only thing they have in common is their "soul" (not a spiritual soul"). These two men, the way the act, react, and how they see life is what draws Kira to them. When the country takes away everything you own, uses you as an example of the worst of humanity, takes away your freedom to be who you are, say what you think, do what you want, live as you want to live ...what do you do? This is the premise of the story. What does communism do to your soul? What will it do to any country and to its people. It crushes their spirit. Destroys the individual with their hopes an dreams and desires. None of these things are allowed in a collective society. Every idea, thought, desire, anything that makes you an individual is stomped out of you. Every breath you take is not your own. It belongs to your comrades, your brothers and sisters. There is no "I" in socialism, communism, totalitarianism, whatever label you give it. There is only We. Spoiler alert..... Ayn Rand takes you from the beginning to the ending of the lives of these 3 young people. You will feel what they feel: joy, pain, disbelief, helplessness, hope, defiance, hopelessness, bitter cold, disgust, fear, courage beyond imagination, love without limits and the utter dispair when everything is lost and you are totally and completely alone. You will go through the ups and downs of the lives they lived, will understand who they are and what they believe in. Will wonder WHY did she do that to a beloved character, cry if you are anything like me at the loss of life and be completely in shock at how the story ends. This is no fairytale, so there is no fairytale ending. You will understand when you read her epilogue why she had to end it as she did. But you will still cry for Kira. For everything she lost and, at the very end, what she found. You only have 3 Choices when you live in a world that crushes who you are. When there's nothing left. 1. suicide- it finally breaks you 2. close off your mind completely. The only thing you have that they can't take is your mind. So you drown who you are with alcohol, parties, do anything to make yourself forget what you can never have. You don't compromise, you don't bend but you break. Who you are disappears and you become an empty shell of a human being. It is like a drawn out suicide. 3. You run away, try to escape. You neither compromise what you believe, bend or break. You don't lose hope or give in to the Life you know is out there for you. You run until you can't run anymore and you escape or die trying. Either way you remain unconquered. Each of these 3 characters took a different road. Each made a different choice and each has a different ending. AR explains why each of the 3 had to go down the road they did. This is a tragic love story but more importantly, it is a tragic "Life" story. A tragedy that seems more and more possible in the country that our original leaders created to be free, one in which we believe the promise that "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness" can not be taken from us. We need to open our eyes. Open our neighbors eyes, the World's eyes because this could easily become America if we stay on the path we are on. We outlawed slavery a long time ago. We can't permit it to come back for the sake of the collective. "I" must always remain the most important word in our society. AYN RAND taught me that. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A novel that is still very relevant for our times *by A***N on January 20, 2017* The only other novel I have read from Ayn Rand is Atlas Shrugged. I believe this novel was written at the start of her writing career. The difference in style, characterization and approach is notable compared to Atlas. Even though it focuses on life in Soviet Russia, this is very much a book for our time. For this reason alone it is worth reading. We The Living centers around Kira Argounova as she and her family are coming to grips with leading a new life in Soviet Russia. Two other characters also come into focus as Kira becomes romantically involved with both - Leo and Andrei. I was quite surprised with Rand's treatment of her characters in this novel. While they felt like symbols and mouthpieces for Rand's objectivism philosophy in Atlas Shrugged, here they feel authentic and relatable i.e. real human beings. She does an excellent job highlighting the insidiousness of the Communist collectivist philosophy and how it slowly changes or outright destroys the individual and his/her individuality and humanity. The three main characters all deal with the oppressiveness of life in Soviet Russia in different ways all leading to losing something precious. Not even love or the simple need for honest human interaction and emotional bonding can survive. This is not only apparent with Kira and Leo but Sonia and Pavel as well. Even family bonds are destroyed. See Victor as an example. Reading this novel, one should be able to see the parallels between the communist approach to free speech and egalitarianism and today’s smothering political correctness and quest for equality. The chilling result of all this is the sacrifice of morals and values in the name of a greater good. Sonia says the following in the novel: “Science is in our own calloused hands. We have outgrown that old bourgeois prejudice about the objective impartiality of science. Science is not impartial. Science is a weapon of the class struggle.” Today we see this reflected in Environmentalism and the many scandals surrounding tampering of data used to advocate for global warming. A friend was said to me: “Does it matter whether we know global warming is true? We have to do something!” Truth and or evidence for a course of action is no longer necessary if the action is deemed noble in and of itself. Another example from Sonia: “Hearty proletarian greetings to all! And particularly to our comrade women. There’s no sight I like better than a new woman student, a woman emancipated from the old slavery of dishes and diapers.” The parallels to some aspects of modern day feminism should be readily apparent. In summary, those who disliked Rand’s characterizations and excessive monologues on philosophy in Atlas Shrugged should give this book a whirl. It is far more nuanced and in the vein of a traditional literary work of fiction. For those who enjoyed Atlas Shrugged, this book is well worth visiting to witness Rand’s first baby steps in attempting to understand and articulate her beliefs. The difference in style, expression and characterization is fascinating. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ How The Russian Revolution Ruined Three Lives! *by P***N on January 10, 2014* It was hard to rate this book because I really didn't like it. Why? Because truthfully it was too depressing--there was nothing about it that made me want to turn the next page. I even had to put it down and read something light and refreshing because I would never find it in this book. Having said all that, giving it four stars has to do with the contents, the writer's message, and the idea that she experienced the aftermath of the Russian Revolution first hand. This book was written in 1936. The Revolution is long passed, Lenin is long dead, and life isn't as glorious as those proletariats had imagined. Unless you are an official with the Communist Party your life is bleak at the most. There is little if no food available, everyone has ration tickets to get bread, and for the most part meals consist of potatoes and gruel. It's like a page out of a Dickens novel only this is the twentieth century. The main character of this novel is Kira, a young woman whose father once owned a factory so at one time, life was pretty good for them. Then there is Leo, an anti-revolutionary guy whose father was once an admiral in the Czar's navy and has been executed. The other male dominant figure is Andrei who is in love with Kira and is himself dedicated to the new order of Communism. Their lives become intertwined in various ways. In the forward of this book, Ayn Rand describes Kira as a replica of herself. Kira dreams of becoming an engineer and studies at the Institute. Rand in her book Atlas Shrugged celebrates the individual---the drive to success, love of your work and profession and the desire to do good things. In the new Russia this is not acceptable. And Kira being of a previously well to do family that owned a business and property does not fit into this new world order. Granted this is fiction, but it's interesting that the writer experienced this life before she escaped and eventually got to the United States. To appreciate her most controversial book Atlas Shrugged, I think it's important to read this first endeavor. If one feels that Atlas Shrugged promotes greed, this book describes how those in power under a system that oppresses any free thought and free enterprise are even greedier as they exert more power and control over everyone and everything! ## Frequently Bought Together - We the Living - Anthem - Ayn Rand Box Set: ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/3861769-we-the-living](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/3861769-we-the-living) --- *Product available on Desertcart Saudi Arabia* *Store origin: SA* *Last updated: 2026-05-05*