Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad is an epic novel set during the pivotal battle that turned the tide of World War II. Grossman, a Soviet war correspondent who witnessed the battle firsthand, follows the Shaposhnikov family and a vast cast of characters as German forces advance toward the city in 1942. The novel depicts soldiers, civilians, scientists, and Party officials, exploring how war tests and reveals character. Grossman writes with the sweep of Tolstoy, whom he consciously evokes, and with an honesty about the Soviet system rare for his time. Stalingrad was the prequel to Life and Fate, which Soviet authorities suppressed; both novels were effectively banned for decades. The translation by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler conveys Grossman's range of register and his gift for both intimate scenes and epic panorama. Stalingrad is deeply humane, attending to individual consciousness even amid mass destruction. Grossman finds meaning and beauty in wartime without prettifying violence or suffering. Essential reading for anyone interested in World War II, Russian literature, or the capacity of fiction to convey historical catastrophe while preserving the particularity of human lives.