There is a Klimov, a Krymov, and a Krylov, and they're all present in the same area at the same time in the novel. I don't want to claim that this is an easy read. I'm not even sure I could make up 154 names, let alone put them all in one of the greatest stories ever written.īut what makes Life and Fate so special is not the quantity of characters it's the quality and depth of all 154 of them. In case you weren't aware, that's a large number. How many characters are considered 'chief' by the translator? 154. In the back of Life and Fate, there is a vital guide that lists all of the 'chief' characters with brief descriptions of who they are. There were a few times I despaired of ever completing this book for the constant suffering and anguish of the characters were deeply affecting. The plot weaves back and forth in time and space between Soviet and Nazi armies/prison camps/citizens interacting with the Shapasnikov extended family and their outside relationships with employers, lovers, and colleagues during the siege of Stalingrad (Aug 1942-Feb 1943.) The turbid ebb and flow of human misery washed in a flood of fatalism permeates the entirety of this book and makes for difficult reading.

This book is the “War and Peace” of this Century and the most complete novel (by an insider) of Stalinist life that we have or are most likely to ever have. Rebellious spirits and hostile ideologues were purged from the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, from the cities to the villages, and individuals were swept into a seething cauldron of darkness which they wanted no part of. The author’s purpose was to draw similarities between life in general and life in the concentration camps/gulags under the Nazis and the Red Army of the USSR.

Life and fate vasily grossman review