{"title":"Vasily Grossman","description":"\u003cp\u003eVasily Grossman's work offers a profound exploration of human resilience amid the sweeping tides of history. His novels, often set against the backdrop of World War II and its aftermath, delve into the lives of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, blending vivid historical detail with deep psychological insight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect narratives that are both expansive and intimate, where themes of morality, survival, and the search for meaning unfold through rich characterisation and compelling storytelling. Grossman's writing stands as a powerful testament to the endurance of the human spirit in times of conflict and change.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"life-and-fate-vintage-classic-russians-series-by-vasily-grossman-9781784871963","title":"Life and Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series)","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Vintage Classics Russians Series offers sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e is the great Russian 20th-century novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eStalingrad\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e is an epic tale of a country told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs. As the battle of Stalingrad looms, Grossman's characters must work out their destinies in a world torn by ideological tyranny and war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCompleted in 1960 and then confiscated by the KGB, this sweeping panorama of Soviet Society remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West in 1980, where it was hailed as a masterpiece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Vintage Classics Russians Series offers sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House Distribution","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46071823925484,"sku":"9781784871963","price":23.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781784871963.jpg?v=1736068939"},{"product_id":"life-and-fate-by-vasily-grossman-9780099506164","title":"Life and Fate","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe great Russian 20th-century novel from the \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eStalingrad\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e is an epic tale of a country told through the fate of a single family, the Shaposhnikovs. As the battle of Stalingrad looms, Grossman's characters must work out their destinies in a world torn by ideological tyranny and war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCompleted in 1960 and then confiscated by the KGB, this sweeping panorama of Soviet Society remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West in 1980, where it was hailed as a masterpiece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCompelling... Grossman's portrait is timelessly relevant... \u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e is worth all the audience it can find\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe Times\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House Distribution","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46271945507052,"sku":"9780099506164","price":36.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780099506164.jpg?v=1742265139"},{"product_id":"life-and-fate-by-vasily-grossman-9781841594033","title":"Life and Fate","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten in the 1950s and suppressed in the USSR until 1988—with the KGB destroying all Russian manuscripts, and even the typewriter ribbon on which it was written—Vasily Grossman's epic saga, the War and Peace of the Soviet twentieth century, is an astounding work of literature and a devastating historical and political documentary on both Soviet Communism and German Nazism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased around the pivotal WWII battle of Stalingrad (1942-3), where the German advance into Russia was eventually halted by the Red Army, and around an extended family, the Shaposhnikovs, and their many friends and acquaintances, \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e recounts the experience of characters caught up in an immense struggle between opposing armies and ideologies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNazism and Communism are appallingly similar, 'two poles of one magnet', as a German camp commander tells a shocked old Bolshevik prisoner. At the height of the battle, Russian soldiers and citizens alike are at last able to speak out as they choose, and without reprisal—an unexpected and short-lived moment of freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman himself was on the front line as a war correspondent at Stalingrad—hence his gripping battle scenes, though these are more than matched by the drama of the individual conscience struggling against massive pressure to submit to the State. He knew all about this from experience too. His central character, Viktor Shtrum, eventually succumbs, but each delay and act of resistance is a moral victory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThough he writes unsparingly of war, terror, and totalitarianism, Grossman also tells of the acts of 'senseless kindness' that redeem humanity, and his message remains one of hope. He dedicates his book, the labour of ten years, which he did not live to see published, to his mother, who, like Viktor Shtrum's, was killed in the holocaust at Berdichev in Ukraine in September 1941.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46501735661804,"sku":"9781841594033","price":41.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/18839363482843.jpg?v=1748601934"},{"product_id":"stalingrad-by-vasily-grossman-9781784878801","title":"Stalingrad","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA new rejacketed, red spine edition of Vasily Grossman's epic prequel to \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'One of the great novels of the 20th century'\u003c\/em\u003e Observer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini plan the huge offensive on the Eastern Front that will culminate in the greatest battle in human history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHundreds of miles away, Pyotr Vavilov receives his call-up papers and spends a final night with his wife and children in the hut that is his home. As war approaches, the Shaposhnikov family gathers for a meal—despite her age, Alexandra will soon become a refugee; Tolya will enlist in the reserves; Vera, a nurse, will fall in love with a wounded pilot; and Viktor Shtrum will receive a letter from his doomed mother which will haunt him forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe war will consume the lives of a huge cast of characters—lives which express Grossman's grand themes of the nation and the individual, nature's beauty and war's cruelty, love and separation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor months, Soviet forces are driven back inexorably by the German advance eastward and eventually Stalingrad is all that remains between the invaders and victory. The city stands on a cliff top by the Volga River. The battle for Stalingrad—a maelstrom of violence and firepower—will reduce it to ruins. But it will also be the cradle of a new sense of hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStalingrad\u003c\/em\u003e is a magnificent novel not only of war but of all human life—its subjects are mothers and daughters, husbands and brothers, generals, nurses, political officers, steelworkers, tractor girls. It is tender, epic, and a testament to the power of the human spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'You will not only discover that you love his characters and want to stay with them—that you need them in your life as much as you need your own family and loved ones—but that at the end... you will want to read it again'\u003c\/em\u003e Daily Telegraph\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTHE PREQUEL TO \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME, \u003cem\u003eSTALINGRAD\u003c\/em\u003e IS A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND NOW A MAJOR RADIO 4 DRAMA\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWINNER OF MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION \"LOIS ROTH AWARD\" FOR TRANSLATIONS FROM ANY LANGUAGE\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46510036844780,"sku":"9781784878801","price":32.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13402843482823.jpg?v=1748790960"},{"product_id":"the-people-immortal-by-vasily-grossman-9781529414752","title":"The People Immortal","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of Grossman's three great war novels - alongside \u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eStalingrad.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A significant, valuable addition to Grossman's small but powerful body of work\" WILLIAM BOYD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A remarkable novel that illuminates the terrible realities of Barbarossa and the banal horror of warfare with incomparable understanding and insight\" JONATHAN DIMBLEBY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"There are always good reasons for reading Grossman, but few times are as resonant as our own\" \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"At the heart of his writing lies a tireless humanity and empathy\" \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Grossman combines a journalist's eye with a novelist's empathy\" \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet during the catastrophic defeats of the war's first months, it tracks a Red Army regiment that wins a minor victory in eastern Belorussia but fails to exploit this success. A battalion is then entrusted with the task of slowing the German advance, and eventually encircled, before ultimately breaking out and joining with the rest of the Soviet forces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman's descriptions of the natural world - and his characters' relationship to it - are both vivid and unexpected, as are his memorable character sketches: eleven-year-old Lionya is determined to hang on to his toy revolver as he walks a long distance behind German lines; his defiant grandmother slaps a German officer in the face and is shot; Kotenko, a fiercely anti-Soviet peasant who initially welcomes the Germans, hangs himself in despair when they treat him with contempt; and Semion Ignatiev, a womanizer and gifted storyteller, turns out to be the boldest and most resourceful of the rank-and-file soldiers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman spent most of the war years close to the front line. But \u003ci\u003eThe People Immortal\u003c\/i\u003e is far from being mere morale-boosting propaganda. On the contrary, as letters included in this volume make clear, it was read as a textbook, and as a work of military education. This edition includes not only the unredacted novel itself, translated here for the first time since 1946, but also a wealth of background material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA heavily redacted English translation of \u003ci\u003eThe People Immortal\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1946. This current edition is the first that reflects Grossman's original text.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46717818962156,"sku":"9781529414752","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14569243482732.jpg?v=1754481071"},{"product_id":"the-road-by-vasily-grossman-9780857381941","title":"The Road","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the author of \u003cem\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/em\u003e, now a major Radio 4 drama starring Kenneth Branagh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVasily Grossman is widely recognised as one of the outstanding literary figures of the twentieth century. The short fiction collected here—satire, comedy, tragedy, and pure narrative—illustrates the remarkable breadth of his work and demonstrates all the bold intelligence, delicate irony, and extraordinary vividness for which he has become known.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to the eleven stories, this volume includes the complete text of \u003cem\u003eThe Hell of Treblinka\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the first descriptions of a Nazi extermination camp; a powerful and harrowing piece of journalism written only weeks after the camp was dissolved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeautifully illuminated by Robert Chandler's introductions and endnotes, with photographs from the family archive, and an Afterword by Grossman's stepson, Fyodor Guber.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46998747250924,"sku":"9780857381941","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/6744943482493.jpg?v=1763230331"},{"product_id":"the-people-immortal-by-vasily-grossman-9781529414745","title":"The People Immortal","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of Grossman's three great war novels - alongside \u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eStalingrad\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe People Immortal\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkable novel that illuminates the terrible realities of Barbarossa and the banal horror of warfare with incomparable understanding and insight,\" Jonathan Dimbleby.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"There are always good reasons for reading Grossman, but few times are as resonant as our own. As a proud son of Ukraine, steeped in Russian culture, Grossman was both a chronicler of the Soviet Union's greatest victories and a clear-eyed investigator of some of its darkest crimes.\" John Thornhill, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet during the catastrophic defeats of the war's first months, it tracks a Red Army regiment that wins a minor victory in eastern Belorussia but fails to exploit this success. A battalion is then entrusted with the task of slowing the German advance, and eventually encircled, before ultimately breaking out and joining with the rest of the Soviet forces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman's descriptions of the natural world - and his characters' relationship to it - are both vivid and unexpected, as are his memorable character sketches: eleven-year-old Lionya is determined to hang on to his toy revolver as he walks a long distance behind German lines; his defiant grandmother slaps a German officer in the face and is shot; Kotenko, a fiercely anti-Soviet peasant who initially welcomes the Germans, hangs himself in despair when they treat him with contempt; and Semion Ignatiev, a womanizer and gifted storyteller, turns out to be the boldest and most resourceful of the rank-and-file soldiers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGrossman spent most of the war years close to the front line. But \u003ci\u003eThe People Immortal\u003c\/i\u003e is far from being mere morale-boosting propaganda. On the contrary, as letters included in this volume make clear, it was read as a textbook, and as a work of military education. This edition includes not only the unredacted novel itself, translated here for the first time since 1946, but also a wealth of background material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47537119592684,"sku":"9781529414745","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/77870c52d857300f89e4ceb5b94f9495.jpg?v=1776901881"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/vasily-grossman.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}