Based around the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad (1942-3), where the German advance into Russia was eventually halted by the Red Army, and around an extended family, the Shaposhnikovs, and their many friends and acquaintances, Life and Fate recounts the experience of characters caught up in an immense struggle between opposing armies and ideologies. Nazism and Communism are appallingly similar, 'two poles of one magnet', as a German camp commander tells a shocked old Bolshevik prisoner. At the height of the ...
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Based around the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad (1942-3), where the German advance into Russia was eventually halted by the Red Army, and around an extended family, the Shaposhnikovs, and their many friends and acquaintances, Life and Fate recounts the experience of characters caught up in an immense struggle between opposing armies and ideologies. Nazism and Communism are appallingly similar, 'two poles of one magnet', as a German camp commander tells a shocked old Bolshevik prisoner. At the height of the battle Russian soldiers and citizens alike are at last able to speak out as they choose, and without reprisal - an unexpected and short-lived moment of freedom. Grossman himself was on the front line as a war correspondent at Stalingrad - hence his gripping battle scenes, though these are more than matched by the drama of the individual conscience struggling against massive pressure to submit to the State. He knew all about this from experience too. His central character, Viktor Shtrum, eventually succumbs, but each delay and act of resistance is a moral victory. Though he writes unsparingly of war, terror and totalitarianism, Grossman also tells of the acts of 'senseless kindness' that redeem humanity, and his message remains one of hope. He dedicates his book, the labour of ten years, and which he did not live to see published, to his mother, who, like Viktor Shtrum's, was killed in the holocaust at Berdichev in Ukraine in September 1941.
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Add this copy of Life and Fate to cart. $8.24, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Add this copy of Life and Fate: a Novel to cart. $8.93, very good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Add this copy of Life and Fate: a Novel to cart. $8.93, fair condition, Sold by EB-Books LLC rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rockford, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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Add this copy of Life and Fate: a Novel to cart. $9.93, good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1987 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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I am having to break up the reading of 'Life and Fate'. Knowing that it is based on Vasily Grossman's real life experience it is dreadful to know the horrific lives and deaths of so many people at the hands of Hitlers Germans, and Joseph Stalin's tyranny. I do not read the book at bed time, and have read 'A walk in the Woods' by Bill Bryson during my first break from Life and Fate. I am now reading Enid Blyton's 'Up the Faraway Tree' before going back in to 'Life and Fate'.
Michael B
Dec 6, 2012
haunting book
This book was arrested by the KGB while the author was allowed to remain free. However copies had been smuggled abroad. It presents Soviet Communism as being little different to Nazism. Grossman intercuts between scenes in a gulag and a concentration camp. Grossman was a war reporter with the Soviet 'Red Star' newspaper, so he knows what he is talking about. The opening scenes of Stalingrad ablaze are unforgettable. I found the German former nanny being denounced as an enemy agent -and her pet cat killed-so that someone could take her apartment as it had an extra room very reminiscent of what family members told me about the Second World War. British POWs spilling the beans about a radio to the Germans so that they could have cigaretttes, chocolate or just get into their captors' good books. Parts of it could have done with a literary editor but it was written in secret and has a few rough edges here and there, in as much as one can tell in translation.
Andrew M
Dec 1, 2011
Stalingrad, Stalin and Soviet Society
I came to this novel with the assistance of Athony Beevor's 'Stalingrad', though could be enjoyed without it.Following the complexity of the narrative of the family relationships is difficult but it draws you in to a deeply human tale of the effects of war on individuals and society. At times so moving it almost becomes unbearable.This is a book I had to resist the temptation to finish in one sitting. Truly worth your time
Steven W S
Nov 24, 2011
My Favorite Book
This great book is my favorite historical novel. Its scope and power allow the reader to fully understand the fact that Russian Communism and German National Socialism were little more than ugly, feuding brothers, struggling for power.
billbolen
Mar 4, 2010
Classic WW2 epic
One of great novels to come out of WWII. Based around battle of Stalingrad and families involved. Incredible insight into Soviet State and Fascism. Long read but worth it.
