Life and Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series): **AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4**

Vasily Grossman

Apr 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

Life and Fate is an epic tale of twentieth-century Russia told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Stalingrad.

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Completed in 1960 and then confiscated by the KGB, this sweeping panorama of Soviet Society remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West in 1980, where it was hailed as a masterpiece.

'One of the finest Russian novels of the 20th century' Daily Telegraph

'Compelling... Grossman's portrait is timelessly relevant... Life and Fate is worth all the audience it can find' The Times

Ratings and reviews

mesmerizing journey through time and space, in a political snd social system so alien to my own, the author embodies each character in ways that feel so genuine. You laugh, you cry and at its close you feel, like this book's uncertainties, that life's journey is made more enriching by the company you keep, the ideals you aspire to and the observations you allow yourself when you stop and take in the world around you. A masterpiece by a master writer, what more could you ask for.

One of the best novels I read. The reader feels the living conditions both during the battle of Stalingrad and during Stalin's rule.

As above

About the author

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.