Robert Chandler writes: 'Life and Fate is the true War and Peace of this century, the most complete portrait of Stalinist Russia that we have or are ever likely to have.' Chandler, who has had the herculean task of making a good translation of this long, moving and very remarkable novel, puts forward that claim in his Introduction. When a long honest novel comes out of Russia today comparisons with Tolstoy are routine - I have made them myself - but in this case it seems worth asking rather more rigorously than usual what they really mean.

LRB 19 September 1985 | PDF Download