By the author of Life and Fate, now a major Radio 4 drama starring Kenneth Branagh. Vasily Grossman is widely recognized as one of the outstanding literary figures of the twentieth century. The short fiction collected here - satire, comedy, tragedy and pure narrative - illustrate the remarkable b...
In what was almost a relaunch of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler counted on charging into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields there. He was convinced that securing this source of fuel would enable him to hold out against the ‘Big Three’ powers now ranged against him. But on 12 May, six days before t...
Yekaterina Savelievna’s death, Grossman’s guilt, and the ensuing recriminations between him and his wife are all reflected in Life and Fate. Grossman evidently felt that his mother remained alive in his novel, and this sense of his mother’s continued presence seems to have led him to look on Life...
This nephew worked as a driver; his bride worked in a village shop. We had a long way to go, to the Talin region, on the southern slope of Mount Aragats. I had been uncertain whether to go—I’d had a pain in my belly since the previous evening, and like a swimmer with littl...
He was, however, already twelve; he was in his sixth year at school. After coming home, fetching the water, and washing the dishes, he would sit and do his homework. Sometimes he would look up at Ivan Grigoryevich and say, “Could you test me on history, please?” &nbs...