The three ‘S’s of happinesss
A dulcet and sibilant summary of the source of felicity. Wishing you thrice times blessings of slumber, sunshine and sweets....
Torment-filled pupil
This doesn't refer to a struggling school child but rather the traumatic last moments of a horse in a war...
Dogs of war
How clever these creatures, able to distinguish between the sound of planes that unleash havoc and so should be hidden...
A thousand years of history
On the centenary of the October Revolution, I wonder how Russians today would feel about this terse statement by Grossman.
...Good versus kind
The 800 pages of Grossman's splendid Life and Fate is occasionally interlarded with heartfelt asides by the author, including pleas...
Like atoms of radium
A fine metaphor for dots of kindness shining through darkness; Grossman's hope for the future is largely vested in the...
Communing with the cosmos
Glorious moment in this splendid, human novel: an army officer camped somewhere on the steppe enjoys a moment of embracing...
As simple as…
A simile that deserves to enter daily use. But was Newton’s thought simple? Yes and no…
‘… as simple as...
A noble, ancient world
A beautiful, gentle challenge to any perception of the steppe as being some sort of endless emptiness. Here we find...
Of eyes that saw too much
This is part of a detailed, detached account of what happened when people entered a gas chamber, as experienced by...
Cast-iron sun
A surprising image, as if the sun itself were cast in Vulcan's smithy, a great sizzling shield of liquified iron.
...How to strangle an author
The life and fate of Grossman's manuscript hung in the balance after being arrested by the authorities. He never knew...
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