Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (1919–2000) was a Polish writer and journalist, a prominent figure in the Polish literary emigration of the 20th century. In 1940, he was arrested by the NKVD in Lviv and accused of espionage. He spent two years in a camp in Yertsevo (Arkhangelsk region).

"A World Apart" is the first book in the world to reveal the truth about the existence of the criminal system of concentration camps in the USSR. This is a work of documentary prose about the brutal methods of "re-education," which turned people into camp dust. The book was written in England in 1950 and was initially published in English translation with a foreword by Bertrand Russell in 1951. It has been translated into numerous languages.

The Polish original was published in 1953 in London and only in 1989 in Warsaw. The book was first published in Russian by the London-based OPI publishing house in 1989, translated by Natalia Gorbanevskaya.