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Stalingrad
- Narrated by: Elliot Levey, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 37 hrs and 13 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
Non-member price: $48.62
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- By: Vasily Grossman
- Narrated by: Elliot Levey
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- Unabridged
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Vasily Grossman, author of Life and Fate, was transformed by his experiences as a war correspondent. Following the shock invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Grossman volunteered for front line duty. Declared unfit for active service he was assigned to Red Star newspaper as a special correspondent. In these BBC Radio programmes, Elliot Levey reads three of Vasily Grossman's front line despatches.
Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The Sunday Times best seller and now a major Radio 4 drama.
In April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini plan the huge offensive on the Eastern Front that will culminate in the greatest battle in human history.
Hundreds of miles away, Pyotr Vavilov receives his call-up papers and spends a final night with his wife and children in the hut that is his home. As war approaches, the Shaposhnikov family gathers for a meal: despite her age, Alexandra will soon become a refugee, Tolya will enlist in the reserves, Vera, a Nurse, will fall in love with a wounded pilot and Viktor Shtrum will receive a letter from his doomed mother which will haunt him forever.
The war will consume the lives of a huge cast of characters - lives which express Grossman’s grand themes of the nation and the individual, nature’s beauty and war’s cruelty, love and separation.
For months, Soviet forces are driven back inexorably by the German advance eastward, and eventually Stalingrad is all that remains between the invaders and victory. The city stands on a cliff top by the Volga River. The battle for Stalingrad - a maelstrom of violence and firepower - will reduce it to ruins. But it will also be the cradle of a new sense of hope.
Stalingrad is a magnificent novel not only of war but of all human life: its subjects are mothers and daughters, husbands and brothers, generals, nurses, political officers, steelworkers, tractor girls. It is tender, epic and a testament to the power of the human spirit.
Critic Reviews
"One of the great novels of the 20th century, and now published in English for the first time." (Observer)
"A gripping panorama of the human experience." (Kenneth Branagh)
"You will not only discover that you love his characters and want to stay with them - that you need them in your life as much as you need your own family and loved ones - but that at the end...you will want to read it again." (Daily Telegraph)
What listeners say about Stalingrad
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-07-2020
Revisit War and Peace
This is so good that 'Life and Fate' unabridged is an audible must. I'm waiting for it
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- DFK
- 26-07-2020
One of the greatest 20th century books
Before I even finished this book, I started thinking about which other 20th century books could compare in the beauty of the evocative prose (in what I assume is an excellent translation by Chandler), the importance of topic, and the depth and lucidity. It is hard to think of books that compare. This is great Russian literature (with the common challenge of Russian literature of too many Russian names for my name-challenged brain), and should be better known, and, hopefully, the stuff of literature courses. Reading this, I was able to imagine, and shudder, what it must have been like to live in the Soviet Union at the time. In reading various reviews of the book, I saw much concern about the censorship, and some reader critique that it is propaganda. Regarding the former, using your imagination to conjure what might have been censored or what Grossman refrained from putting in is not difficult. Regarding the latter - nonsense! It is not propaganda to view something through the eyes of the characters. Regardless of what I think of Stalin and Communism, I know that many Soviet citizens worshipped him at the time and only learned later the truth about his evils. I know that many people, after the revolution, had opportunities that they never would have had under the Tsar. And I cannot help but appreciate and value the determination of the Soviet citizens to defeat fascism and Nazi Germany. Nothing is black and white. Growing up during the Cold War, my history classes did not teach me enough about the heroes of the Soviet Union. There were many. This book is about individuals, and one decisive battle as seen through their and their families’ eyes. It is brilliant. The narrator, for some reason, took a bit of time to get used to, but I found him to be superb, with just the right amount of feeling and sadness in it all. We need an unabridged audio version of Life and Fate. I’ll preorder it.
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- MR ENDA P MCKEEVER
- 13-08-2020
Hard work but very well written
I really struggled with the names and keeping up with the story. The unfamiliar Russian names generally led to me mixing up characters. However brilliantly written and I found I couldn't abandon
3 people found this helpful
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- Stacy
- 22-02-2021
The “War & Peace” of the Twentieth Century
“Stalingrad” and “Life& Fate” are two masterpieces of the 2nd World War by Vassily Grossman. Starting when Hitler disavows his pact with Stalin and invades Russia in the beIief that Germany will triumph within a matter of weeks, the novel covers the following years of war, destruction and bravery. Grossman was present as a reporter at Stalingrad, and his writes in vivid detail, with so many characters that the reader comes to care about that, even after 900 pages, you can’t bear it to stop. Which brings me on to “Life & Fate”. There is no Audible version of this masterpiece: I can play hope that a reading is on its way, I hope also by Elliott Levey, whose reading is pitch-perfect.
1 person found this helpful
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- Mr. Roel Verhoeven
- 05-11-2020
most boring book ever
I listened to about 16 hours of this book but couldn't finish it. it's just so dull, nothing happens. all of the many, many characters are flat and unconvincing. I've noticed this before with classic books, they are highly rated but i think overrated. I'm sure this book has historic merit, bit out should, as a novel, be more interesting to read than a history text book. i understand that censorship made this book very positive about Russia, but it's unrelenting.
1 person found this helpful
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- Chris N.
- 11-08-2020
Why can't anyone else write like the Russians?
The narrator is good but this masterpiece deserves a Colin Firth or a Juliet Stephenson.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 18-04-2021
A great listen
A captivating listen and a Tolstoy-esque epic. Little of the book is about the battle itself, but rather the foreboding of the coming battle, the effects of the inhabitants lives, and the sacrifices they endure. I look forward to Life and Fate and how that an unabridged version will be released.
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- Tracy H.
- 03-04-2021
Top Historical Novel
A modern classic. Narrative really puts the reader into the centre of war. Shocking yet human.
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- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-2021
Frustrating
I found the book frustrating because it takes a long time to introduce too many characters for it to be easy to follow.
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- Schlegel sister
- 05-10-2020
Disappointing narrator
Vasily Grossman is a magnificent writer and Stalingrad is the essential prequel to Life and Fate. It really deserves a better narrator, the reading is dull and the pronunciation of Russian names very poor. It would be great if Stalingrad + Life and Fate were available as a pair, read by someone with the versatility and depth of Anton Lesser.
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