The work of Vasily Grossman has been rather rediscovered in recent years – his masterpiece Life and Fate has been accorded lavish screen treatment and the ending of the Soviet system made possible the publication of numerous manuscripts which had previously been suppressed in one way or another. For the first time, then, we the readers are able to enjoy properly translated editions of full versions of the books as intended by the author, complete with chronology, explanatory notes and so forth. In addition, the translation is completely new, by Antony Beevor, and is said to wholly supersede previous versions (none of which I have read so I am relying on second hand reports for this point).
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