A very big book. nearly 1,000 pages which I found difficult to get through with its vivid descriptions of the suffering and hand-to-hand battles fought by Russian soldiers against Hitler's ruthless onslaught. So harrowing were the horrors, I did the unforgivable and skipped large sections only to find at the end that the siege of Stalingrad was to be continued in Grossman's second book Life and Fate. You need strong nerves to tackle them.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 94 Autumn 2019 ) |
