Life and Fate
A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state, Life and Fate is an epic tale of World War II and a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the twentieth century. Interweaving a...
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A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the state, Life and Fate is an epic tale of World War II and a profound reckoning with the dark forces that dominated the twentieth century. Interweaving a transfixing account of the battle of Stalingrad with the story of a single middle-class family, the Shaposhnikovs, scattered by fortune from Germany to Siberia, Vasily Grossman fashions an immense, intricately detailed tapestry depicting a time of almost unimaginable horror and even stranger hope. Life and Fate juxtaposes bedrooms and snipers’ nests, scientific laboratories and the Gulag, taking us deep into the hearts and minds of characters ranging from a boy on his way to the gas chambers to Hitler and Stalin themselves. This novel of unsparing realism and visionary moral intensity is one of the supreme achievements of modern Russian literature.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781590172018 (1590172019)
ASIN: 1590172019
Publish date: May 16th 2006
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Pages no: 896
Edition language: English
IntroductionHistorical BackgroundThe Text and the TranslationA Few Books About Stalinist Russia and Vasily Grossman--Life and FateList of Chief Characters
bookshelves: radio-4, autumn-2011, published-1980, wwii, war, slavic, epic-proportions, philosophy, nazi-related, holocaust-genocide, classic, teh-brillianz, translation Recommended for: Brazilliant Laura et al Read from September 12 to 25, 2011 * Classic Serial in two parts starting 18th Septemb...
Many people have compared this book to War and Peace. Clearly, there are similarities (although set in different wars and in very different Russias). However, this book also reminded me of Heller’s Catch-22. There were comic moments (Yevgenia’s struggle with the bureaucracy in Kuibyshev over a r...
This book was deemed dangerous? Shit yeah, son! I'm gonna read this so hard...
*Note: This was originally written in 2011. As such, the references to how many books I've read are only for that year. And with this book, I hit my goal for the year of reading 150 books. And what a book to go out on! I've only given five or six other five star ratings this year, and Life and Fate ...