The historian and broadcaster chooses his favourite books. He is talking about his book, “Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War”, at the Stratford Literary Festival, 30 October-2 November.
Stalingrad
Vasily Grossman, 1952, translated by Robert Chandler, 2019
Grossman is the 20th century’s Tolstoy, a genius whose “Stalingrad” is no less powerful than his later masterpiece, “Life and Fate”, but on a more intimate scale: a heroic struggle portrayed from the perspective of a wonderfully layered cast of characters.
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