Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Centur..., Alexandra Popoff
Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Centur..., Alexandra Popoff
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century

Author: Alexandra Popoff

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 15 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/26/2019

Synopsis

If Vasily Grossman’s 1961 masterpiece, Life and Fate, had been published during his lifetime, it would have reached the world together with Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago and before Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag. But Life and Fate was seized by the Russian KGB. When it emerged posthumously, decades later, it was recognized as the War and Peace of the twentieth century. Always at the epicenter of events, Grossman (1905–1964) was among the first to describe the Holocaust and the Ukrainian famine. His 1944 article “The Hell of Treblinka” became evidence at the Nuremberg trials. Grossman’s powerful antitotalitarian works liken the Nazis’ crimes against humanity with those of Stalin.We are only now able to examine Grossman’s prose, which has the everlasting quality of great art, as well as his life and legacy, which Popoff’s authoritative biography illuminates.

About Alexandra Popoff

Alexandra Popoff is the award-winning author of literary biographies, including Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography; The Wives: Women behind Russia’s Literary Giants, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2012 in Nonfiction; and Tolstoy’s False Disciple: The Untold Story of Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Chertkov. She began her career as a journalist working in Moscow. As an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow she published her work in the Philadelphia Inquirer and its Sunday magazine. She also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Boston Globe.

About Claire Bloom

Claire Bloom gained international fame in 1951 with her screen debut in Charles Chaplin???s motion picture Limelight. Among her many memorable films are Richard III, The Haunting, Look Back in Anger, and A Doll???s House.

About Stefan Rudnicki

Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile’s award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card’s Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, "Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take." Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marks54 on June 15, 2019

This is a new biography of Vasily Grossman, a Soviet dissident writer and journalist, who reported from the key battles of the Nazi-Soviet War, especially the battle of Stalingrad. As a writer, he also wrote large scale novels and other works on the war, including “Life and Fate”, which highlighted......more

Goodreads review by Terry on June 23, 2019

This is an outstandingly good book, Scary and prescient in the descriptions of its time. If there is both a time of outrage, and, when history appears to have both rhyme and rhythm this is it. The book consists of 15 chapters, an Epilogue, notes, bibliography, etc. It is 326 reading pages, not inclu......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on January 29, 2020

Well researched and written This is a well research and sensitively written biography. Engaging and entertaining, it discusses Vasily Grossman’s writing on the front line at the battle of Stalingrad, along with the Red Army through the gates of the Nazi death camps, and fighting for the publication o......more

Quotes

“Gripping…As told by Popoff, the stories behind Grossman’s stories, particularly of censors’ efforts to alter and limit them, are fascinating.” New York Times

“[Popoff] tells Grossman’s story with sensitivity and a keen understanding of his world, drawing on little-known archival collections to produce what must be considered the definitive biography.” Wall Street Journal

“Popoff’s biography is crisp and comprehensive, deftly interweaving Grossman’s personal life with the momentous events he experienced.” Financial Times (London)

“Provides not only the best look yet at this great author’s working life but also a stirring study of one man’s lifelong fight against totalitarian rule.” Christian Science Monitor

“Striking…clear and well-structured.” Spectator (London)

“Stefan Rudnicki narrates this account…His deep pitch, enunciation, and inflections are clear, and he moves at a pace that is easy to follow.” AudioFile

“A fine biography of Soviet dissident writer Vasily Grossman…This well-researched portrait should introduce many new readers to a significant writer whose stand against totalitarian ideology, as Popoff’s epilogue on Putin’s veneration of Stalin demonstrates, has taken on new relevance and urgency today.” Publishers Weekly

“A harrowing tale of cruelty and courage…An unforgettable portrait of one brave soul’s triumph over a soulless state.” Michael Shelden, author of Young Titan

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List