Completed in the late 1950s by its distinguished Russian author, this novel has been recognized as fiction on an epic scale: powerful, deeply moving, and devastating in its depiction of a world mutilated by war and ideological tyranny.
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Review
"One of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century" (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 )
"Vasily Grossman's novel is burnt in my memory, not only by its huge canvas, its meditation on tyranny, and its dazzling description of war, but also because this is the novel that made me cry - not just a few leaked tears, but a full-scale sobbing episode - in Montpellier airport... Grossman lost his mother in a concentration camp. In Life and Fate, he writes with tenderness, and pain, not only of that experience but of what it is like to survive tyranny. A classic indeed" (Gillian Slovo Independent )
"One of the great writers of the last century" (Observer ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"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 )
"Vasily Grossman's novel is burnt in my memory, not only by its huge canvas, its meditation on tyranny, and its dazzling description of war, but also because this is the novel that made me cry - not just a few leaked tears, but a full-scale sobbing episode - in Montpellier airport... Grossman lost his mother in a concentration camp. In Life and Fate, he writes with tenderness, and pain, not only of that experience but of what it is like to survive tyranny. A classic indeed" (Gillian Slovo Independent )
"One of the great writers of the last century" (Observer ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
The greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a monumental novel, worthy of the description that has sometimes been applied to it of being the twentieth century's War and Peace. It details a range of suffering and cruelties, both large and petty, on all sides. Many of the day to day details of Stalinism are here: the constant presence of denunciations and the way small events can make or break someone's life, such as the central character of Viktor Shtrum falling due to his contacts with non-Russian scientists and then rising after a telephone call from Stalin praising his work, or Krymov being arrested and beaten up despite his years of loyal service and belief in the cause. Other particularly memorable sequences include the gas chamber scenes and the dialogue between a Nazi officer and Soviet prisoner Mostovskoy as the former tries and nearly succeeds in convincing his captive that Nazism and Communism are marching in the same direction.
I generally find descriptions of actual battle scenes fairly tedious to read, but they are there as they should be and due attention is paid to the significance of Stalingrad as the turning point in leading to the defeat of Nazism.
From the Soviet regime's point of view it is hardly surprising Suslov told Grossman it could not be published for 200 years as it goes well beyond criticism of Stalin and destroys the whole raison d'etre of the Soviet regime. In this respect it goes beyond the much better known Doktor Zhivago, an excellent novel but probably more famous in the West very largely because of the superb David Lean film. For me, Life and Fate tops Pasternak's novel as the best Russian novel of the Soviet era.
I generally find descriptions of actual battle scenes fairly tedious to read, but they are there as they should be and due attention is paid to the significance of Stalingrad as the turning point in leading to the defeat of Nazism.
From the Soviet regime's point of view it is hardly surprising Suslov told Grossman it could not be published for 200 years as it goes well beyond criticism of Stalin and destroys the whole raison d'etre of the Soviet regime. In this respect it goes beyond the much better known Doktor Zhivago, an excellent novel but probably more famous in the West very largely because of the superb David Lean film. For me, Life and Fate tops Pasternak's novel as the best Russian novel of the Soviet era.
233 of 237 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I was always of the view that, thanks to the PhD industry, there weren’t any neglected masterpieces out there. Life and Fate has proved me wrong. What I loved about this book was its scale, its ambition, and its earnestness. Grossman has something of passionate importance to tell the world. The book could just as easily have been entitled Good and Evil, Freedom and Slavery, or War and Peace.
Despite the book’s settings - German concentration and Russian labour camps, the Lubyanka, Stalingrad - it’s not fundamentally grim. Grossman is as interested in the nature of Good as he is of Evil. A 50 year old woman doctor ‘adopts’ a small boy as the doors of the gas chamber shut. The commander of a tank battalion spares his men by holding fire for ten minutes with Stalin breathing down his neck.. A Russian woman comforts a dying German soldier.
Grossman believed in the individual and the individual’s essential humanity. This is easy to say and seems sententious when made written down but he also believes in literature with a capital L. The task he sets himself is to create characters and settings that demonstrate this humanity.
Fabulous stuff. Be warned. Clever postmodernist novels are going to look pretty trivial after this.
141 of 144 people found the following review helpful
By M. Belcher
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't really add much to the previous reviews, as this is an exceptional novel and truely gripping all the way through (no mean feat for nearly 900 pages). If you're familiar with other Grossman writings (e.g. his diaries) then you can see that many of the characters and situations are taken from real experiences and people that he encountered during his war reporting. To me that makes it an even better read, as whilst a novel, it is based soundly on real life.
One tip, check out the character index at the back of the book, before you start reading. Unless you're good with Russian names, it can be a bit hard to follow at first. The index (which I only discovered three quarters of the way though) really helps with identifying who is who.
No question that this is a five star book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
They called this a masterpiece...
... and it is from beginning to its abrupt end, I wanted more! A peep behind the propaganda façade, warts and all!
Published 1 month ago by GALT
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read
A very long and compelling but strange book about a terrible time in Soviet history. I found the use of Russian names confusing and it was hard to remember who was who.
Published 3 months ago by NR
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Wonder the OLD SOV BLOCK ARRESTED "THE BOOK"
What can I say that hasn't a;ready been said except that those of us who were brought up in freedom and relatively free from the horrors of war should get down on our knees and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Brian S. Bramwell
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read book
I have read this a number of times and because I know I will turn to it again, I have bought the Kindle version to save my weak arms from carrying the physical copy around. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stephen Webb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harrowing portrayal of life in the USSR and Germany during World War...
Although some people might be put off by the vast number of characters, and the confusing Russian habit of giving themselves a wide variety, this is one of the most powerful books... Read more
Published 4 months ago by jhgr
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent Homage to War and Peace
Grossman make no attempt to disguise this as a homage to Tolstoy's epic, and lets face it if you're going choose a classic novel as a template you may as well choose possibly the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Matt Richards
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grim and harrowing - and interminable - but with an important message.
As seems to be characteristic of Russian novels - & has been noted by other reviewers - this novel has a cast of thousands (figuratively speaking), & when combined with the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by S. Ahmad
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic gift to history and our understanding.
Though the book is ultimately a complex and depressing read its true value is in the sub plots and stories of the individual characters that otherwise would have been lost and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by geoff
4.0 out of 5 stars
Heroic epic
In the introduction to this book it is suggested that Grossman chose the title Life and Fate because he wanted it to be compared with the similarly titled War and Peace. Read more
Published 8 months ago by John Williams
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting Read
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman is a huge, sprawling novel that is ambitious in its aim to give insight into the conditions or the life and fate of a vast array of characters set... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Herman Norford
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