Review
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A must read (Margaret Atwood)
Magnificent. . . Alexievich doesn't just hear what these women say; she cares about how they speak. . . It's a mark of
her exceptional mind that she tries to retain the incomprehensible in any human story (Gaby Wood Daily Telegraph Books
of the Year)
Brilliant (Kamila Shamsie Guardian Books of the Year)
Nothing can quite prepare the reader for the shattering force of The Unwomanly Face of War, Svetlana Alexievich's oral
history of Soviet women in the second world war. In the midst of such colossal suffering hundreds of little details
stick in the mind (Geoff Dyer Guardian Books of the Year)
An astonishing book, harrowing and life-affirming. It deserves the widest possible readership (Paula Hawkins, author of
The Girl on the Train)
Extraordinary. . . it would be hard to find a book that feels more important or original. . . Alexievich's strength -
and a mark of her own courage - is that she is forever on the lookout for the seemingly inconsequential, almost trivial
human moments. . . Her achievement is as breathtaking as the experiences of these women are awe-inspiring (Viv Groskop
Observer)
A revelation. . . Alexievich's text gives us precious details of the kind that breathe life into history . . . This is a
book about emotions as much as it is about facts. It is not a historical document in the accepted sense. . . and yet
ultimately, which historical documents are more important than this? (Lyuba Vinogradova Financial Times)
A profoundly humbling, devastating book, it should be compulsory reading for anyone wishing to understand the experience
of the war and its haunting legacy in the former Soviet Union (Daniel Literary Review)
These stories about the women warriors of Mother Russia are a symphony of feminine suffering and strength. . . Read this
book. And then read it again (Gerard DeGroot The Times)
Astonishing. . . Her years of meticulous listening, her unobtrusiveness and her ear for the telling detail and the
memorable story have made her an exceptional witness to modern times. . . This is oral history at its finest and it is
also an essay on the power of memory, on what is remembered and what is forgotten (Caroline Moorehead Guardian)
From the Inside Flap
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Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ivano-Frankivsk in 1948 and has spent most of her life in the Soviet Union and
present-day Belarus, with prolonged periods of exile in Western Europe. Starting out as a journalist, she developed her
own non-fiction genre which brings together a chorus of voices to describe a specific historical moment. She has won
many international awards, including the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for 'her polyphonic writings, a monument to
suffering and courage in our time'.
Alexievich set out to write The Unwomanly Face of War, her first book, when she realized that she grew up surrounded by
women who had fought in the Second World War but whose stories were absent from official narratives. She spent years
interviewing dozens of Soviet women - captains, sergeants, nurses, snipers, pilots, wives and mothers - who had
experienced the war on the front lines, on the home front and in occupied territories, bringing to light their memories.
After completing the manuscript in 1983, Alexievich was not allowed to publish it because it went against the official
history of the war. With the dawn of Perestroika, the book finally came out in 1985 and it became a huge bestseller in
the Soviet Union. Alexievich's other works, all built around interviews conducted over many years, include Last
Witnesses (1985), Boys in Zinc (1991), Chernobyl Prayer (1997) and Second-Hand Time (2013).