Stalingrad
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Stalingrad
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Narrated by:
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Elliot Levey
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Leighton Pugh
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
The Sunday Times best seller and now a major Radio 4 drama.
In April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini plan the huge offensive on the Eastern Front that will culminate in the greatest battle in human history.
Hundreds of miles away, Pyotr Vavilov receives his call-up papers and spends a final night with his wife and children in the hut that is his home. As war approaches, the Shaposhnikov family gathers for a meal: despite her age, Alexandra will soon become a refugee, Tolya will enlist in the reserves, Vera, a Nurse, will fall in love with a wounded pilot and Viktor Shtrum will receive a letter from his doomed mother which will haunt him forever.
The war will consume the lives of a huge cast of characters - lives which express Grossman’s grand themes of the nation and the individual, nature’s beauty and war’s cruelty, love and separation.
For months, Soviet forces are driven back inexorably by the German advance eastward, and eventually Stalingrad is all that remains between the invaders and victory. The city stands on a cliff top by the Volga River. The battle for Stalingrad - a maelstrom of violence and firepower - will reduce it to ruins. But it will also be the cradle of a new sense of hope.
Stalingrad is a magnificent novel not only of war but of all human life: its subjects are mothers and daughters, husbands and brothers, generals, nurses, political officers, steelworkers, tractor girls. It is tender, epic and a testament to the power of the human spirit.
©2020 Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"One of the great novels of the 20th century, and now published in English for the first time." (Observer)
"A gripping panorama of the human experience." (Kenneth Branagh)
"You will not only discover that you love his characters and want to stay with them - that you need them in your life as much as you need your own family and loved ones - but that at the end...you will want to read it again." (Daily Telegraph)
What listeners say about Stalingrad
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dennis Sommers
- 01-09-24
A 20th-century ‘War and peace’
I plan to read this again: it is so inspiring st so many levels that one reading can’t possibly suffice to learn everything it has to teach. There are magnificent set pieces as well as shorter insightful passages and sensitive dialogue: characterisation is rounded for the principals but smaller episodes contain equally true-to-life individuals and relationships. It is well said in the introduction that here we have another ‘War and peace’ with the difference that Grossnan was actually present among the events he recounts with such authenticity.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- bradley
- 23-11-22
epic journey
I felt it was written for the time and got lost a few times while moving around Stalingrad but over all a great book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C
- 21-09-23
Classic but also thrilling
Robert Chandler's wonderful translation is vivid and mesmerizing with some of the most amazingly written passages I have heard. Well worth it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tracy H.
- 03-04-21
Top Historical Novel
A modern classic. Narrative really puts the reader into the centre of war. Shocking yet human.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Billy the squid
- 12-03-24
Masterpiece of war literature.
The comparison is often made, because it’s true. Vasily Grossman is the mid 20th century Tolstoy. Life and Fate is his War and Peace, and this is the first book, or prologue I suppose, but prologue does it an injustice. It’s a towering, complex, and complete work in its own right. Grossman is a soldier, a journalist, a writer and a poet, all first rate. Also find his collection of short stories called ‘The Road’.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vagra
- 27-08-24
Powerful
An amazing, powerful and thought provoking piece of literature, stands as a testament to the courage and determination of the Russian people.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 20-07-24
Epic and gripping
Characters and the sense of being there from the storytelling. Good narration
Historically interesting. Russia and communism
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mary D.
- 03-10-24
Fascinating insight into Russian experience of WW2
This is a magnificent accomplishment — and magnificently read by the narrator. I'm not sure if it's Elliot Levey or Leighton Pugh who should get a medal for performing this over 37 hours, but they should certainly be awarded. The prose is too often florid and repetitive (so many adjectives!) for modern taste, it's terribly sentimental and the cast of characters is so vast that it's almost impossible to keep on top of who's who, who's where and who's dead or alive, but it's an astonishing achievement and well worth the time. There's so much one could say about it, but it would be best just to listen. Now on to the next part...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris N.
- 11-08-20
Why can't anyone else write like the Russians?
The narrator is good but this masterpiece deserves a Colin Firth or a Juliet Stephenson.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- s gilst
- 08-09-21
Tour de Force
A wonderful tour de force of the second world war for the fight for Stalingrad I was hooked and now so sorry it's come to an end!! If you haven't read/heard it you're in for a special treat. Enjoy!!
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