880-03

Originally published in English as War's unwomanly face by Progress Publishers, Moscow, in 1988.

"The Unwomanly Face of War" is the long-awaited English translation of Svetlana Alexievich's first book, a groundbreaking oral history of women in World War II across Europe and Russia. Alexievich chronicles the experiences of the Soviet women who fought on the front lines, on the home front, and in the occupied territories. These women--more than a million in total--were nurses and doctors, pilots, tank drivers, machine-gunners and snipers. They battled alongside men, and yet, after the victory, their sacrifices were forgotten. Alexievich traveled thousands of miles and visited more than a hundred towns to record these women's stories. Together, this symphony of voices reveals a different aspect of the war--the everyday details of life in combat left out of the official histories. Translated by the renowned Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, "The Unwomanly Face of War" is a powerful and poignant account of the central conflict of the twentieth century, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human side of war.

From a conversation with a historian -- A human being is greater than war -- "I don't want to remember..." -- "Grow up, girls... you're still green..." -- "I alone came back to Mama..." -- "Two wars live in our house..." -- "Telephones don't shoot..." -- "They awarded us little medals..." -- "It wasn't me..." -- "I remember those eyes even now..." -- "We didn't shoot..." -- "They needed soldiers... but we also wanted to be beautiful..." -- "Young ladies! Do you know: the Commander of a Sapper Platoon lives only two months..." -- "To see him just once..." -- "About tiny potatoes..." -- "Mama, what's a papa?" -- "And she puts her hand to her heart..." -- "Suddenly we wanted desperately to live..."