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Stalingrad
Stalingrad
Apr 20, 2025 3:24 PM

Author:Vasily Grossman,Full Cast,Kenneth Branagh,Greta Scacchi,Ann Mitchell,Kenneth Cranham,Mark Bonnar

Stalingrad

A two-part radio dramatisation of Vasily Grossman's dark, honest account of the battle of Stalingrad; a prequel to Life and Fate – plus Stalingrad: Destiny of a Novel

Epic BBC serial Life and Fate stunned radio audiences in 2011, garnering rave reviews for its powerful depiction of a family torn apart by war in Soviet Russia. Now, with this astonishing prequel published in its first ever English translation by Richard and Elizabeth Chandler, we are transported back to the very beginning of Vasily Grossman’s panoramic tale, as the ‘harsh whirlwind’ of war approaches the city of Stalingrad.

As Stalingrad opens, we are introduced to the many lives of the Shaposhnikov family and their partners. Atomic scientist Viktor Shtrum struggles with his work for the State and with his own conscience, while his family live, love and work (despite swirling rumours) to run the city’s power stations, factories and hospitals.

Meanwhile, at the Front, we meet old-school Bolshevik Commissar Nikolai Krymov in the thick of the Russian army’s pell-mell retreat before Operation Barbarossa, and follow the 'unknown' soldiers giving their lives to hold the line at the Volga.

This vivid, gripping drama features many of the same acclaimed cast as Life and Fate, including Kenneth Branagh as Viktor Shtrum and Greta Scacchi as Lyuda Shaposhnikova.

Accompanying this stellar dramatisation is Stalingrad: Destiny Of A Novel; featuring extracts from Grossman's private journal, translated here for the first time, and chronicling Stalingrad’s tortuous gestation and long, tormented passage to print. Written and presented by author and historian Catherine Merridale, with readings by Anton Lesser, this five-part series reveals the dramatic backstory behind the classic novel and explores the beginnings of Grossman’s own journey towards Soviet heresy.

Written by Vasily Grossman

Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler

Dramatised by Mike Walker (Part One) and Jonathan Myerson (Part Two)

Part One produced and directed by Jonquil Panting

Part Two produced by James Robinson and directed by Jonathan Myerson

Series Producer: Alison Hindell

Original music composed by John Hardy, with Rob Whitehead, and performed by Oliver Wilson-Dixon, Tom Jackson, Stacey Blythe and Max Pownall

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 November-1 December 2019

Reviews

superb action scenes, well-researched ... absolutely worth the wait

—— Starburst magazine

Louis de Bernieres is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh... he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste

—— Evening Standard

[The Autumn of the Ace is] penned with de Bernières's quiet, deprecating humour and sharp observation

—— Vanessa Berridge , Sunday Express

Both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, this novel will captivate the senses and make you laugh as well as cry. Brimming with incredible, quirky characters and beautiful, lyrical writing, The Autumn of the Ace is the ideal book for lovers of historical fiction

—— Carmen Coetsee , South African

Greene's novel of illicit love captures perfectly the atmosphere of rainy wartime London - try to read this in one sitting if you can

—— Express

A deliciously uncomfortable read for anyone who's allowed their heart to rule their head

—— Mariella Frostrup , Psychologies

Passionate, powerful and complex

—— Susannah York , Daily Express

One of our greatest authors - for experience of a whole century he was the man within

—— Independent

No serious writer of this century has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination than did Graham Greene

—— The Times

Greene’s classic wartime drama The End of the Affair is no less gripping for its simplicity…this unacceptable love, this devastating outcome.

—— Chris Pavone , Big Issue

A brilliantly spare examination of loneliness and the search for forgiveness in an unforgiving world… superbly atmospheric… This is Greene at his most existential and metaphysically dense… It remains an astonishing achievement

—— Douglas Kennedy , Writing Magazine

Astounding... This...is the best [Greene novel]...brimming with pain and rage. If you ever have aspirations to write a novel, read Greene. He's the perfect writer's writer

—— Emma Kennedy author of Letters from Brenda , Week

An incisive and empathetic study of adolescent alienation and the social conditions that drive radicalisation

—— Tank Magazine

An unflinching look at generational ambition and betrayal

—— inewspaper

A timely read that does a brilliant job of depicting the human cost when violence shifts from abstraction to reality

—— Mail on Sunday Event Magazine

Provocative and resolutely compassionate

—— Traveller

Reliably funny and wise, featuring delightfully eccentric and endearing characters

—— Daily Express

Arguably his best…. A must-read

—— Victoria Moore , Daily Mail

Stunningly simple and profound.

—— Will Gore , Catholic Herald

The strength of this masterly novel is that it illuminates without pretending to explicate.

—— Ronan Farren , Belfast Telegraph Morning

It’s signature Amis at his most inventive, and it is through…inspired and irreverent fluency that his dead-serious purpose is realized.

—— Tova Reich , Washington Post

Most fiction would break under the weight of so much self-reflection, but The Zone of Interest does not even bend... Deft, ironic and horribly funny... A brilliantly believable account of an episode which is beyond belief.

—— Frances Wilson , Oldie

The Zone of Interest succeeds because in it Amis is seriously funny - that is to say, funny for serious purposes.

—— Ben Cooke , Cherwell Newspaper

Martin Amis’s best novel in years

—— Ian Rankin , Guardian

It’s a brilliant feat of imagination and chutzpah.

—— Viv Groskop , Observer

Is the Holocaust a fit subject for fiction? … The only proper response is to read this remarkable, deeply disturbing and quite original novel.

—— Alan Taylor , Herald

Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest achieved the near impossible, confounding his detractors with this horrifying glimpse into the heard of Nazi darkness.

—— Bert Wright , Irish Times

The Zone of Interest is Amis at his boldest and best.

—— Allan Massie , Scotsman

What would be otherwise be light entertainment…becomes sinister and strange, warped by the enormous atrocities happening just offstage.

—— Lev Grossman and Radhika Jones , Time Magazine

Martin Amis’s best novel in years.

—— Ian Rankin , Guardian Weekly

It is always hard to read factual material about the Holocaust but in fiction Amis has shined a light into this darkness which offers no answers but is still profoundly moving.

—— Richard Jaffa , Birmingham Jewish Recorder

It was very, very good.

—— Joseph Connolly , Lady

I think everyone should read it – it is so horrific.

—— Kirsty Wark , Lady

A well-received return to form

—— Charlotte Heathcote , Daily Express

Astonishingly bold novel… [It] is Amis’s best work in years

—— Mail on Sunday

Amis’s best work since Money

—— Richard Susskind , The Times
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