Life and Fate

The greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century.The great Russian 20th-century novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Stalingrad.Life and Fate is an epic tale of a country told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs. As the battle of Stalingrad looms, Grossman's characters must work out their destinies in a world torn by ideological tyranny and war.Completed in 1960 and then confiscated by the KGB, this sweeping panorama of Soviet Society remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West in 1980, where it was hailed as a masterpiece."Compelling... Grossman's portrait is timelessly relevant... Life and Fate is worth all the audience it can find" The Times

“One of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century”

The War and Peace of the 20th century -- Antony Beevor
Times Literary Supplement
It is only a matter of time before Grossman is acknowledged as one of the great writers of the 20th century... Life and Fate is a book that demands to be talked about Guardian
One of the finest Russian novels of the 20th century Daily Telegraph
What better time to read Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman's epic novel about the second world war, to put our current troubles into perspective? Grossman's book, which traces the fate of the family of the brilliant physicist Viktor Shtrum at the time of the Battle of Stalingrad, records how humanity endured the monstrous evils of Nazism and Stalinism, surviving like weeds in the cracks of concrete slabs Financial Times

Vasily Grossman was born in 1905. In 1941, he became a war reporter for the Red Army newspaper Red Star and came to be regarded as a legendary war hero. Life and Fate, his masterpiece, was considered a threat to the totalitarian regime, and Grossman was told that there was no chance of the novel being published for another 200 years. Grossman died in 1964.

TRANSLATED BY ROBERT CHANDLER 'One of the finest Russian novels of the 20th century' Daily Telegraph Life and Fate is an epic tale of a country told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs. As the battle of Stalingrad looms Grossman's characters must work out their destinies in a world torn apart by ideological tyranny and war. Completed in 1960 but confiscated by the KGB, this sweeping panorama of Soviet Society remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West where it was hailed as a masterpiece. See also: War and Peace

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