Life and Fate (Russian: Жизнь и судьба), is a 1959 novel by Vasily Grossman, and the author's magnum opus. Technically, it is the second half of the author's conceived two-part book under the same title, but while the first half (the novel For the Right Cause), written during the reign of Joseph Stalin and first published in 1952, expresses loyalty to the regime, Life and Fate sharply criticises Stalinism. Le Monde described it as "the greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century".
Vasily Grossman, a Ukrainian Jew, was a correspondent for the Soviet military paper Krasnaya Zvezda throughout World War II. He spent approximately 1,000 days on the frontlines, roughly 3 of the 4 years of the conflict between the Germans and Russians. He was also author of the novel The People are Immortal. He was one of the first journalists to write about the ethnic cleansing of people in Eastern Europe and he was present at many famous battles. Life and Fate was his “pièce de resistance” and most defining achievement.
Read more about Life And Fate: History of The Manuscript, Historical Context, Main Characters, Plot Summary, Major Themes, Radio Adaption
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or fate:
“Remember the rights of the savage, as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home, remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God, as can be your own.”
—W.E. (William Ewart)
“Good-by, my book! Like mortal eyes, imagined ones must close some day. Onegin from his knees will rise—but his creator strolls away. And yet the ear cannot right now part with the music and allow the tale to fade; the chords of fate itself continue to vibrate; and no obstruction for the sage exists where I have put The End: the shadows of my world extend beyond the skyline of the page, blue as tomorrow’s morning haze—nor does this terminate the phrase.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)