Stalingrad

De: Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler - translator, Elizabeth Chandler - translator

Narrado por: Leighton Pugh, Elliot Levey

In April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini meet in Salzburg where they agree on a renewed assault on the Soviet Union. Launched in the summer, the campaign soon picks up speed, as the routed Red Army is driven back to the industrial center of Stalingrad on the banks of the Volga. In the rubble of the bombed-out city, Soviet forces dig in for a last stand.

The story told in Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad unfolds across the length and breadth of Russia and Europe. At the heart of the novel is the Shaposhnikov family. Even as the Germans advance, the matriarch, Alexandra Vladimirovna, refuses to leave Stalingrad. Far from the front, her eldest daughter, Ludmila, is unhappily married to the Jewish physicist Viktor Shtrum. Viktor's research may be of crucial military importance, but he is distracted by thoughts of his mother in the Ukraine, lost behind German lines.

In Stalingrad, published here for the first time in English translation, and in its celebrated sequel, Life and Fate, Grossman writes with extraordinary power and deep compassion about the disasters of war and the ruthlessness of totalitarianism, without, however, losing sight of the little things that are the daily currency of human existence or of humanity's inextinguishable, saving attachment to nature and life.

©2019 Ekaterina Vasilievna Korotkova and Elena Fedorovna Kozhichkina; English translation copyright 2019 by Robert Chandler; Introduction, notes, and afterword copyright 2019 by Robert Chandler (P)2024 Tantor

This is a must read if you are interested in ww2

Absolutely incredible; amazing narration. The mental and physical toll is given equal value. Worth the long listening hours!

Good description-painted a good picture.

I would have been just as pleased if it had been half as long. Repetitive verbose, and all seemed to turn on the outsized influence of mothers on boys in Russian society and the role of guilt in society as a whole. Still, I’m
Very glad I read it. Quite an exhausting piece of work!

Gripping tale

Even the usual problems with Russian pronunciation could not take away from the sweeping vista Grossman conjures up.

Grossman’s Stalingrad. Yes but..,

Grossman was the great Russian Jewish writer of the 20th century: wonderful portraits and incisive characters, well-told action. The problem is that this excellent book is deeply marred by what it took to get it published in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Praise of Stalin and glorious celebration of Soviet labor, shading the Gulag out of existence. The whole terrible cost of Stalinist industrialization, the organized brutality of the Russian military. Grossman goes on to be one of Russia’s great dissidents. The breadth of the novel is stunning. Readers should be warned, though the compromises undercut the work

One of the best audiobooks of all time

Grossman's work here is well known, and much has been written about it that I need not repeat. I would only add that this book is packed with memorable, thought-provoking settings and characters: the recounting of the onset of war as seen by Novikov, Vavilov's conscription, and the unexpected meeting of Tamara Berozkina and her husband during her travels as a refugee, to name only a few. Grossman's ability to describe the consciousness of hardened Nazis, whether dealing with historical figures or fictional characters, is chilling. The conclusion of this novel, with Novidov's entry into Stalingrad, rises to mythic proportions and transcends all history. All of that said, the narration of this novel is standard-setting. It is truly spectacular.

war and peace

Excellent version of WW2’s War and Peace. Wonderfully narrated. Highly recommended. Looking for the audiobook version of Life and Fate.

A real slog

I love Life and Fate, but now see why they waited so long to translate Stalingrad - it is a long, LONG preamble with repetitive scenes and too many characters. The Soviet propaganda is layered on horrifically thick. The narrator was great and there were some excellent passages but overall it’s just an endurance contest.