$17.95

RRP: $22.99 Details

Recommended Retail Price (RRP)
The RRP displayed is the most recent manufacturer’s recommended retail price made available to Amazon AU.
You Save: $5.04 (22%)

In stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Authors

Vasily Grossman

Robert Chandler

Life and Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series) Paperback – 27 February 2017

by Vasily Grossman (Author)

782 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$14.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Original recording

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$822.00

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$17.95

—

FREE delivery: Thursday, 4 March on first order.

Fastest delivery: Tuesday, 2 March

THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION BY ROBERT CHANDLER, UPDATED AND REVISED

The twentieth century War and Peace, a broad portrait of an age and a searing vision of Stalinist Russia, Life and Fate is also the story of a family, the Shaposhnikovs, whose lives in the army, the gulag, a physics institute, a power station and a concentration camp are stunningly evoked, from their darkest to their most poetic moments.

Judged so dangerous by the Soviet authorities that the manuscript was immediately confiscated when completed in 1960, Grossman's masterpiece was finally smuggled into the West and published in 1980.

The Vintage Classic Russians Series- Published for the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, these are must-have, beautifully designed editions of six epic masterpieces that have survived controversy, censorship and suppression to influence decades of thought and artistic expression.

Special offers and product promotions

Buy this item and get 90 days Free Amazon Music Unlimited. After purchase you will receive an email with further information. Offer valid for a limited time only. Terms and Conditions apply.” Learn more here.

Frequently bought together

Total Price: $49.14

One of these items is shipped sooner than the other. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Life and Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series) by Vasily Grossman Paperback $17.95
In stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Paperback $13.20
In stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.
Doctor Zhivago (Vintage Classic Russians Series) by Boris Pasternak Paperback $17.99
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Vasily Grossman
454
Paperback
$17.75
Mikhail Bulgakov
687
Paperback
$13.20
Vasily Grossman
454
Hardcover
$55.00
Vasily Grossman
242
Paperback
$23.53
Boris Pasternak
658
Paperback
$17.99
Hilary Mantel
36
Hardcover
$92.25

Product details

ASIN : 1784871966
Publisher : VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET (27 February 2017)
Language : English
Paperback : 912 pages
ISBN-10 : 9781784871963
ISBN-13 : 978-1784871963
Dimensions : 15.49 x 5.08 x 21.59 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 47,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,103 in Historical Military Fiction
- 2,503 in War Fiction (Books)
- 18,919 in Religion & Spirituality (Books)

Customer Reviews:
782 ratings

Product description

Review

One of the greatest masterpieces of the twentieth century ― Times Literary Supplement

It is only a matter of time before Grossman is acknowledged as one of the great writers of the 20th century... Life and Fate is a book that demands to be talked about ― Guardian

One of the finest Russian novels of the 20th century ― Daily Telegraph

Vasily Grossman's novel is burnt in my memory, not only by its huge canvas, its meditation on tyranny, and its dazzling description of war, but also because this is the novel that made me cry - not just a few leaked tears, but a full-scale sobbing episode - in Montpellier airport... Grossman lost his mother in a concentration camp. In Life and Fate, he writes with tenderness, and pain, not only of that experience but of what it is like to survive tyranny. A classic indeed -- Gillian Slovo ― Independent

One of the great writers of the last century ― Observer

Book Description

The Vintage Classics Russians Series - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		14%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

John Giles

Read it 40 years too late

Reviewed in Australia on 31 October 2020

Verified Purchase

There are 157 Chief Characters listed in this book and that is not counting the lesser unlisted characters. I found understanding the characters and the relationships between them (which to me what the book is largely about) extremely difficult and in the end I just did not care. And so reading became a chore.
The lessons of a police state are timeless and universal, but it does not take 855 pages ( in this edition) to make this case, particularly when the characters and relationships meant so little,

Helpful

Howard Hilton

Brilliant and un missable

Reviewed in Australia on 11 December 2019

Verified Purchase

Brilliant book overall wonderful. He encompasses a huge amount in his head and then on to the page. Better than Stalingrad and if you are up for 800 pages and are interested in The Russian German war read it.

Helpful

Martin Parker

Outstanding

Reviewed in Australia on 23 August 2020

Verified Purchase

Everyone should own this book

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

hr7

One of the best novels ever written!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 March 2017

Verified Purchase

Where to start...I am a big fan of 20th century Russian literature as well as avid reader in general. Whether you are a fan of Russian literature or history can be seen as irrelevant, this is one of the most stunning, beautiful and gripping novels I have ever read.

Taking the Russian aspect aside initially, this book is a beautifully written novel striking st the heart of human emotions, behaviour and motivations. The multiple characters have given the author the opportunity to focus on the subtle as well as the larger and more horrific scenarios experienced in such an awful period in Russian history. Subsequently, this novel is as much about humanity and how small decisions have a big emotional and life changing impact as it is about the atttorocities millions experienced. His style of writing is beautiful, out of the harshest scenarios he is able to deeply describe the most humane and sensitive touches, meaning the reader becomes entirely involved in the lives of each character. Some characters you love, sympathise with and spend the entire novel wishing for them to act in certain ways, survive and end well, others you despise, yet are gripped by their actions, motivations and again feel closely involved with the characters. The story lines are superb but the style of writing elevates these stories to a far higher level of significance.

As insight into the mindset of such a turbulent and terrifying time in Russian history, I defy the reader to find a better novel. I also defy the reader not to want to learn more about Russian the it's history over the last 100 years.

Read this book, I was not able to put this down and took every small opportunity possible to read it.

68 people found this helpful

Lost John

Worth re-reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 May 2019

Verified Purchase

I first read ‘Life and Fate’ almost 20 years ago. I have just re-read it in preparation for the newly-published ‘Stalingrad’, Robert Chandler’s English translation of the ‘prequel’ to ‘Life and Fate’.

Re-reading ‘Life and Fate’ has endowed me with a fresh perspective on the novel, not so much because it is a second reading, but because in the intervening years I have read so much more of the Russian and Soviet background to the 1942-43 Battle for Stalingrad; the Holocaust; the 1936-38 Great Terror; the artificial famine of the early 1930’s; and a great deal more that is relevant to the diorama that is ‘Life and Fate’.

Grossman’s novel focuses primarily on Stalingrad and the weeks between the first German attacks on the city in August 1942, and the surrender, on 31st January 1943, of General Paulus, Generalfeldmarschall of Nazi Germany’s Sixth Army. It takes in, however, several other Soviet cities, including Moscow, and ranges geographically from a prisoner of war camp in Germany to a Soviet prison camp in Siberia. I should also mention Berdychiv, the Ukrainian city where Grossman was born and in which his mother was one of 12,000 Jews shot by the Nazis, and the Treblinka extermination camp, which Grossman visited in 1944 as a journalist accompanying the Red Army as it pressed the Wehrmacht back towards Berlin.

Many of the details I have found most telling on this re-reading are derived from Grossman’s experience and skill as a journalist. Surely no-one who had not been there with the troops could have described as he does the experience of snipers and others stationed in forward positions in the ruins of Stalingrad; or have observed that a battle tank: ‘offers a magnificent target. Anyone can put it out of action. It makes an appalling din that gives its position away to the enemy and drives its crew round the bend. And it shakes you about so much you can hardly even observe, let alone take aim.’

‘ …these men thought that they themselves would be unlikely to survive until the end of the war; indeed they felt astonished each evening to have survived one more day.’

And yet, Grossman tells us, ‘the soldiers were able to eat soup, repair their boots, carve spoons and discuss their wives and commanding officers at a time when it might well seem impossible to feel anything except fury, horror and exhaustion. … the man with no calm at the bottom of his soul was unable to endure for long ….’

More than a few queries that a student of Soviet society might have are answered. There is, for instance, the question of why Moscow was so quickly de-evacuated in 1942, following evacuation in late 1941. ‘There was no obvious sign that the war had reached a turning point', Grossman writes, ‘Nevertheless, everyone wanted to return to Moscow. It seemed right and natural – as did the Government’s decision to send back various institutions that had been evacuated.’

Then there is Grossman’s observation on the process by which Stalin’s will was executed: ‘There was no need for Stalin to give direct orders – to ask that a prize be awarded to X, a flat be allocated to Y, or an Institute be set up for Z. Stalin was above such matters; they were dealt with by subordinates who divined Stalin’s will through his tone of voice and the look in his eyes.’

This meshes with a growing consensus on how Putin’s Russia now operates.

So there is a lot more to be gained from this novel than just the story of Grossman’s alter ego Viktor Shtrum, his many relatives and associates, spread across a broad spectrum of WW2 Soviet society. There is even some original philosophical reflection on the characteristics of a totalitarian state; on anti-Semitism; and (the conclusion of Part 2, Chapter 32) the ‘remorseless cunning of History’.

'Life and Fate' is Tolstoyan in its ambition and scope. Tolstoy’s position at the pinnacle of Russian literature remains secure, probably for all time, but Grossman’s contribution is nevertheless worth not only reading, but re-reading.

28 people found this helpful

Adam Carlton

Beautifully-written characters living in hell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 February 2018

Verified Purchase

'Life and Fate' is one of the greatest Russian novels of the twentieth century, a semi-autobiographical account by Vasily Grossman of life under the twin horrors of Stalinism and Nazism. Grossman, a Russian Jew, was a war reporter and his book (banned in Russia under Khrushchev) focuses on an extended family scattered across the siege at Stalingrad, a Jewish ghetto and Nazi death camp, and a Stalinist concentration camp, mostly in the period 1941-43. Robert Chandler, its translator, has written an impressive introduction to the book, observing that Grossman came to reject all total ideologies:

"The tribute that a Grossman character pays to Chekhov is a statement of Grossman’s own hopes and beliefs: “Chekhov brought Russia into our consciousness in all its vastness… He said, let’s put God - and all these grand progressive ideas - to one side. Let’s begin with man; let’s be kind and attentive to the individual man - whether he’s a bishop, a peasant, an industrial magnate, a convict in the Sakhalin islands or a waiter in a restaurant. Let’s begin with respect, compassion and love for the individual - or we’ll get nowhere.”

Large Russian novels, books compared to Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and acclaimed as classics, can appear intimidating. In fact 'Life and Fate' is beautifully written (and I should also add, translated) and many of the chapters are quite short, little more than a page. (The Kindle version facilitates a book search to refresh one's memories of the large cast of characters).

Those of us who have led sheltered lives shudder at the thought of what the Grossman generation had to endure. Yet his conclusion seems too austere: history is driven forwards by social movements, and those necessarily clothe themselves in banners and ideals. Few great social upheavals have been unmarked by sustained, collective violence against those invested in the status quo. The atrocious luck of Grossman (and millions of others) was that the twin forces of Stalinism and Fascism, which pressed so lethally upon them, were going nowhere in history.

22 people found this helpful

Gabriel Stein

Excellent panorama of the Soviet Union at war

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 July 2018

Verified Purchase

This is not an easy book to read. Like War and Peace (to which it is often compared) it has a huge gallery of characters between which it shifts, leaving one story line for another. It takes time to get to grips with who is who and how they are connected (if at all). That being said, it is a fascinating panorama of the Soviet Union and Society society at a crucial time, written by someone who experienced it, is strengths as well as its many abhorrent weaknesses. Over everything looks the shadow of the Battle of Stalingrad. Almost 900 pages, but they are well worth the effort.

6 people found this helpful

Mr. C. KIRK

An experience for a lifetime

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2016

Verified Purchase

It is impossible to do justice to this book, which is Grossman's masterpiece and one of the great books of all time .
Vasily Grossman was a Ukrainian scientist and writer, who reported on the Battle of Stalingrad for the Red Army journal. He spent the most savage days of the second world war in the center of a city under siege. Hitler was determined to conquer Stalingrad, which was not essential to his attack on Russia, because of the prestigious name of the city. Stalin was equally determined he wasn't. Between them they dispatched vast quantities of destructive power against each other there and destroyed the city.
Grossman was there throughout and his reports were read at all levels of the Red Army and Kremlin. He did not interview or take notes. He worked along side soldiers and recalled his conversations with them later. He scarcely mentioned the high command in his reports, rather he concentrated on the ground troops shared their lives and reported on their bravery and patriotism.
After the War he wrote this astounding novel, which moves between the Ukrainian town of his upbringing, research labs in and around Moscow, meetings of commissars, senior party and scientific research chiefs, the KGB prisons in Moscow and Siberia, German occupation prisons and extermination camps all linked by an extended family of Ukrainian Jews, who regard themselves as Russians and Soviet citizens.
This is a broad canvass with a host of characters, whom the reader gets to know well. Some are historical figures like Stalin and Paulinus, the German General in charge of the siege of Stalingrad.
There is no real way to describe a book of this magnitude and brilliance. It has to be read. It is an experience not to be missed. In spite the terror and horror the reader experiences along with the characters it remains a positive statement, not only of human endurance but of rapture and delight too.
Clearly this is not a casual comfort read. It is for real, really is an experience one feels honored to have been allowed to share in. It takes several days to read and will effect the rest of your life.

16 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Recommended Retail Price (RRP)

Follow the Authors

Similar authors to follow

Similar authors to follow

Life and Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series) Paperback – 27 February 2017

Special offers and product promotions

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product details

Product description

Review

Book Description

About the Author

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries