The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays (New York Review Books Classics) by Vasily Grossman (2010-09-28)

The Road brings together short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by Vasily Grossman, the author of Life and Fate, providing new insight into the life and work of this extraordinary writer. The stories range from Grossman’s first success, “In the Town of Berdichev,” a piercing reckoning with the cost of war, to such haunting later works as “Mama,” based on the life of a girl who was adopted at the height of the Great Terror by the head of the NKVD and packed off to an orphanage after her father’s downfall. The girl grows up struggling with the discovery that the parents she cherishes in memory are part of a collective nightmare that everyone else wishes to forget. The Road also includes the complete text of Grossman’s harrowing report from Treblinka, one of the first anatomies of the workings of a death camp; “The Sistine Madonna,” a reflection on art and atrocity; as well as two heartbreaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother after her death at the hands of the Nazis and carried with him for the rest of his life. Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man.

The Road rings together short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by Vasily Grossman, the author of Life and Fate, providing new insight into the life and work of this extraordinary writer. The stories range from Grossman’s first success, “In the Town of Berdichev,” a piercing reckoning with the cost of war, to such haunting later works as “Mama,” based on the life of a girl who was adopted at the height of the Great Terror by the head of the NKVD and packed off to an orphanage after her father’s downfall. The girl grows up struggling with the discovery that the parents she cherishes in memory are part of a collective nightmare that everyone else wishes to forget. The Road also includes the complete text of Grossman’s harrowing report from Treblinka, one of the first anatomies of the workings of a death camp; “The Sistine Madonna,” a reflection on art and atrocity; as well as two heartbreaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother after her death at the hands of the Nazis and carried with him for the rest of his life.

Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man.

The New York Times - Ken Kalfus

Throughout his career, as demonstrated in The Road, a wide-ranging collection of Grossman's fiction and journalism, he reported on the most epoch- making turns of his country's history. For today's reader, Grossman's work excavates from the Soviet rubble vital artifacts of the bitter, the tragic, the self-sacrificing, the indomitable and, ultimately, the inspiring…[Robert] Chandler has worked with a team that includes his wife, Elizabeth; the translator Olga Mukovnikova; and a Russian literary critic, Yury Bit-Yunan. Their collaboration has resulted in a volume that is sensitive to Grossman's often lyrical language and frames each entry within its time through comprehensive notes.

The Road brings together short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by Vasily Grossman, the author of Life and Fate, providing new insight into the life and work of this extraordinary writer. The stories range from Grossmans first success, In the Town of Berdichev, a piercing reckoning with the cost of war, to such haunting later works as Mama, based on the life of a girl who was adopted at the height of the Great Terror by the head of the NKVD and packed off to an orphanage after her fathers downfall. The girl grows up struggling with the discovery that the parents she cherishes in memory are part of a collective nightmare that everyone else wants to forget. The Road also includes the complete text of Grossmans harrowing report from Treblinka, one of the first anatomies of the workings of a death camp; The Sistine Madonna, a reflection on art and atrocity; as well as two heartbreaking letters that Grossman wrote to his mother after her death at the hands of the Nazis and carried with him for the rest of his life. Meticulously edited and presented by Robert Chandler, The Road allows us to see one of the great figures of twentieth-century literature discovering his calling both as a writer and as a man. The 1930s In the town of Berdichev A small life A young woman and an old woman The war, the Shoah The old man The old teacher The hell of Treblinka The Sistene madonna Late stories The elk Mama Living space The road The dog In Kislovodsk Three letters Eternal rest. Collects short stories, journalism, essays, and letters by the author of "Life and Fate," including the complete text of Grossman's report on the workings of the Treblinka death camp.