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Buy 15646 By Peter Englund online from Woodbine Books – free delivery in ROI on orders over €50
*A Telegraph History Book of the Year, 2023*
‘An astonishing achievement’ ANTONY BEEVOR
‘A remarkably moving and humane book’ WILLIAM BOYD
An intimate history of the most important month of the Second World War as experienced by those who lived through it, completely based on their diaries, letters and memoirs.
At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could win the war; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose.
In between came el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea, and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. In this innovatively kaleidoscopic and riveting historical marvel, Peter Englund reduces these epoch-making events to their basic component: the individual experience.
In thirty memorable days we meet characters including a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a prisoner in Treblinka; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman, and Vera Brittain. We also witness the launch of SS James Oglethorpe; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor; and the making of Casablanca.
‘Extraordinary … an original panorama of humankind’s most destructive war’ New York Times
‘Superb … a stimulating read’ New Statesman
Not since Englund’s own The Beauty and the Sorrow has a book given us one of the most dramatic periods of human history in all its immensity and emotional range.
In stock
An astonishing achievement
Antony Beevor
By interweaving the detailed experiences of 39 individuals from all parts of the conflict, Englund presents an extraordinary panorama of this pivotal moment. A haunting narrative imaginatively conceived, brilliantly told
Julia Boyd
Absolutely revelatory. A stunning tour de force. So much in here that is truly fresh and new. Englund chronicles the gripping tale of one month that changed everything in WWII, and it is so beautifully written and timeless. Once read, you'll want to return to this again and again
Damien Lewis
What makes Englund's work original and remarkable is his narrative technique, which could be called 'the mosaic method' … A coherent and moving portrait of a world at war
BBC History Magazine
Majestic … This is an extraordinary evocation of a pivotal moment in the 20th century. Englund captures not only the gnawing tension, the moments of terror and the flinty endurance but also the fractal complexity of this global conflict. Resonantly written and utterly gripping, this book will stay with you
Sinclair MacKay
Thought-provoking … Englund’s book … deserves an audience, to increase knowledge not only of this particular war, but also of the stupendous sacrifices and tragedies of all human conflicts
Sunday Times
Succeed[s] in giving a very human (and, inevitably sometimes, inhuman) snapshot of events … Thoroughly worth reading
Telegraph
Superb … a stimulating read
New Statesman
The stories of the individual people featured make the global personal in an astonishing way
Alan Parks, Daily Express *Books of the 2023*
Extraordinary … with a scrupulous and skilful hand [Englund] has created an original panorama of humankind's most destructive war
New York Times
| Weight | 0.368 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 197 × 127 × 30 cm |
