Posted on 26 June 2009 at 07:26:53 GMT I just finished "Stalingrad" by Theodor Plievier, a book that was first published in 1945 based on historical accounts. It's a shocking, grisly book that chronicles the crushing defeat of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad pocket. Many scenes described in this book will stay with me forever—and I guess that's the idea, since Plievier was a German who fled to the USSR before WWII and wrote "Stalingrad" as much as a propaganda tool for his adopted homeland as for its literary merits.
That said, the book is remarkable in that it was written so soon after the end of the battle. I mean, the blood had barely dried on the Eastern Front when the novel came out. Plievier had access to German prisoners and first-hand accounts of the terrible struggle, and it shows.
The book is written like a prose novel, rather than a dry military history treatise. So the narrative follows a dozen or more characters, all German soldiers, as they fight a doomed battle in the steppe and the ruined city. It will no doubt engender a strong emotional response from readers, but it's still highly recommended by me. |