{"product_id":"life-and-fate-new-york-review-books-classics","title":"Life and Fate","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e is Vasily Grossman’s vast, morally searching novel of the Second World War, centred on the Battle of Stalingrad and the Shaposhnikov family, whose members are scattered across the Soviet Union by the upheavals of war and political repression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe novel moves between the domestic and the historical, following scientists, soldiers, prisoners, civilians, political officials, and members of the Shaposhnikov family as they navigate a world shaped by both Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Viktor Shtrum, a brilliant physicist, finds himself caught between scientific discovery, political pressure, and the fate of his Jewish mother. His relatives and friends confront imprisonment, evacuation, military service, persecution, and the constant uncertainty of life under totalitarian rule.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman places intimate human experiences alongside the machinery of history. Family arguments, marriages, friendships, scientific work, acts of courage, and moments of ordinary kindness exist alongside concentration camps, the Gulag, mass executions, and the destruction of cities. The result is not simply a novel about war, but an examination of what happens to individual freedom and moral responsibility when political systems attempt to control every aspect of human life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten in the late 1950s and suppressed by Soviet authorities, \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e was eventually published abroad decades later. Grossman’s expansive narrative has often been compared with Tolstoy’s \u003cem\u003eWar and Peace\u003c\/em\u003e, but its vision is distinctly twentieth-century, confronting the parallel horrors of Nazism and Stalinism while insisting on the enduring importance of individual human dignity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Robert Chandler, this NYRB Classics edition presents one of the major works of twentieth-century Russian literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVasily Grossman (1905–1964) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and war correspondent. During the Second World War he reported from the front for \u003cem\u003eRed Star\u003c\/em\u003e, witnessing some of the most significant events of the Eastern Front, including the Battle of Stalingrad and the liberation of Nazi extermination camps.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis experiences during the war profoundly shaped his fiction. \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e was completed in 1960, but Soviet authorities seized the manuscript and related materials, preventing publication during his lifetime. The novel was eventually published in the West in the 1980s and became recognized as one of the great literary accounts of totalitarianism and the Second World War.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Chandler is a translator of Russian literature whose work includes translations of Grossman, Andrey Platonov, and other major Russian writers. His translation of \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e has helped establish the novel as an important work of English-language world literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew York Review Books Classics\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMay 16, 2006\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e896\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSubjects\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiterary Fiction; Russian Literature; World War II; Battle of Stalingrad; Soviet Union; Stalinism; Nazism; Totalitarianism; Historical Fiction; War Fiction; Family; Political Repression; Fiction in Translation\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e9781590172018\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Old Post Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45397569732790,"sku":"9781590172018","price":41.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0731\/2264\/4150\/files\/9781590172018.jpg?v=1788275992","url":"https:\/\/oldpostbookshop.com\/products\/life-and-fate-new-york-review-books-classics","provider":"Old Post Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}