One of Grossman''s three great war novels - alongside Life and Fate and Stalingrad.
"A significant, valuable addition to Grossman''s small but powerful body of work" WILLIAM BOYD
"A remarkable novel that illuminates the terrible realities of Barbarossa and the banal horror of warfare with incomparable understanding and insight" JONATHAN DIMBLEBY
"There are always good reasons for reading Grossman, but few times are as resonant as our own" Financial Times
"At the heart of his writing lies a tireless humanity and empathy" Telegraph
"Grossman combines a journalist''s eye with a novelist''s empathy" Spectator
Set during the catastrophic defeats of the war''s first months, it tracks a Red Army regiment that wins a minor victory in eastern Belorussia but fails to exploit this success. A battalion is then entrusted with the task of slowing the German advance, and eventually encircled, before ultimate
