The People Immortal

The first war novel by the author of Life and Fate and a stunningly accurate portrayal of soldierly life written at the beginning of World War II.

Vasily Grossman wrote three novels about the Second World War, each offering a distinct take on what a war novel can be, and each extraordinary. A common set of characters links Stalingrad and Life and Fate, but Stalingrad is not only a moving and exciting story of desperate defense and the turning tide of war, but also a monumental memorial for the countless war dead. Life and Fate, by contrast, is a work of moral and political philosophy as well as a novel, and the deep question it explores is whether or not it is possible to behave ethically in the face of overwhelming violence. The People Immortal is something else entirely. Set during the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, this is the tale of an army battalion dispatched to slow the advancing enemy at any cost, with encirclement and annihilation its promised end. A rousing story of resistance, The People Immortal is the novel as weapon in hand.

Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (1905–1964) was born in Berdichev, a Ukrainian town that was home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities. During World War II, Grossman worked as a reporter for the army newspaper Red Star, covering nearly all of the most important battles from the defense of Moscow to the fall of Berlin. NYRB Classics publishes Grossman’s Stalingrad, Life and Fate, The Road, Everything Flows, and An Armenian Sketchbook.
 
Robert Chandler is a British poet and translator. His translations from Russian include Alexander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter and, with Boris Dralyuk, Peter the Great’s African; Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; Vasily Grossman’s Armenian Sketchbook, Everything Flows, Stalingrad, Life and Fate, The Road, and The People Immortal (all NYRB classics).