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The People Immortal

Author Vasily Grossman
Introduction by Robert Chandler
Afterword by Julia Volohova
Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler
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Paperback
$19.95 US
New York Review Books | NYRB Classics
On sale Sep 27, 2022 | 352 Pages | 9781681376783
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The first war novel by the author of Life and Fate and a stunningly accurate portrayal of soldierly life written at the beginning of World War II.

Vasily Grossman wrote three novels about the Second World War, each offering a distinct take on what a war novel can be, and each extraordinary. A common set of characters links Stalingrad and Life and Fate, but Stalingrad is not only a moving and exciting story of desperate defense and the turning tide of war, but also a monumental memorial for the countless war dead. Life and Fate, by contrast, is a work of moral and political philosophy as well as a novel, and the deep question it explores is whether or not it is possible to behave ethically in the face of overwhelming violence. The People Immortal is something else entirely. Set during the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, this is the tale of an army battalion dispatched to slow the advancing enemy at any cost, with encirclement and annihilation its promised end. A rousing story of resistance, The People Immortal is the novel as weapon in hand.
Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (1905–1964) was born in Berdichev, a Ukrainian town that was home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities. During World War II, Grossman worked as a reporter for the army newspaper Red Star, covering nearly all of the most important battles from the defense of Moscow to the fall of Berlin. NYRB Classics publishes Grossman’s Stalingrad, Life and Fate, The Road, Everything Flows, and An Armenian Sketchbook.
 
Robert Chandler’s translations from Russian include works by Alexander Pushkin, Teffi, and Andrey Platonov. He has also written a short biography of Pushkin and has edited three anthologies of Russian literature for Penguin Classics. He runs a monthly translation workshop at Pushkin House in London.

Elizabeth Chandler is a co-translator, with her husband, of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter and of several several works by Vasily Grossman and Andrey Platonov.

Julia Volohova is an independent scholar. She has been researching the life and work of Vasily Grossman since 2014 and she works as an editor for the Laboratory of Unnecessary Things at the Independent University of Moscow.
Vasily Grossman View titles by Vasily Grossman

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The first war novel by the author of Life and Fate and a stunningly accurate portrayal of soldierly life written at the beginning of World War II.

Vasily Grossman wrote three novels about the Second World War, each offering a distinct take on what a war novel can be, and each extraordinary. A common set of characters links Stalingrad and Life and Fate, but Stalingrad is not only a moving and exciting story of desperate defense and the turning tide of war, but also a monumental memorial for the countless war dead. Life and Fate, by contrast, is a work of moral and political philosophy as well as a novel, and the deep question it explores is whether or not it is possible to behave ethically in the face of overwhelming violence. The People Immortal is something else entirely. Set during the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, this is the tale of an army battalion dispatched to slow the advancing enemy at any cost, with encirclement and annihilation its promised end. A rousing story of resistance, The People Immortal is the novel as weapon in hand.

Author

Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (1905–1964) was born in Berdichev, a Ukrainian town that was home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities. During World War II, Grossman worked as a reporter for the army newspaper Red Star, covering nearly all of the most important battles from the defense of Moscow to the fall of Berlin. NYRB Classics publishes Grossman’s Stalingrad, Life and Fate, The Road, Everything Flows, and An Armenian Sketchbook.
 
Robert Chandler’s translations from Russian include works by Alexander Pushkin, Teffi, and Andrey Platonov. He has also written a short biography of Pushkin and has edited three anthologies of Russian literature for Penguin Classics. He runs a monthly translation workshop at Pushkin House in London.

Elizabeth Chandler is a co-translator, with her husband, of Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter and of several several works by Vasily Grossman and Andrey Platonov.

Julia Volohova is an independent scholar. She has been researching the life and work of Vasily Grossman since 2014 and she works as an editor for the Laboratory of Unnecessary Things at the Independent University of Moscow.
Vasily Grossman View titles by Vasily Grossman

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