Vasily Grossman, Trans. by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler
PositiveThe Sydney Morning HeraldTolstoy’s influence is certainly apparent in the interweaving of domestic drama with detailed accounts of the fierce military battle to defeat the invading German army. The lens through which we view the battle, the defining turning point in the Second World War against Nazi ideology, zooms in and out from the particular to the general ... Stalingrad, like its sequel, honours the ordinary people who make history, it is a hymn to the sacrifice of war ... [Grossman] is profoundly moved by small details that reveal the heroism of individuals caught in the crosshairs of war ... Grossman, the humanist, remains squarely and unflinchingly focused on the individual and collective determination to defeat Nazism.