Published by
Vremya, Russia
W.W. Norton, USA
Hanser Berlin, Germany
Ersatz, Sweden
Czarne, Poland
J.L.V., Latvia
edizioni e/o, Italy
Beijing Xiron Books, China
Kagge, Norway
Penguin Random House, Spain
Mamdouh Adwan Publishing, Syria
Munhakdongne, South Korea
Región Projekt, Slovakia
Rayo Verde Editorial, Spain (Catalan)
Fan Noli, Albania
Lindhardt og Ringhof, Denmark
Laguna, Serbia
De Bezige Bij, The Netherlands
20|20 EDITORA, Portugal
Grup Media Litera, Romania
Penguin Classics, UK
Pistorius & Olsanska, Czech Republic
Bukinist, Armenia
Owl Publishing House, Taiwan
Vivat Publishing Ltd., Ukraine
Nebesht Press, Iran
Navyug Publishers, India (Punjabi)
Alma littera, Lithuania
Artanuji Publishers, Georgia
Khuc Thi Hoa Phuong Women Publishing House, Vietnam
Európa Publishers, Hungary
Begemot Dooel, Macedonia
Actes Sud, France
Published in 1991, this book hit like the explosion of a bomb. Alexievich was sued for libel and for “besmirching the honor of soldiers.” The book’s title comes from the thousands of soldiers who died during the Russian incursion into Afghanistan between 1979 and 1985 and were returned to Russia in zinc coffins. Alexievich weaves together the stories told by more than a hundred officers, enlisted men, wives, mothers and widows into an artfully elaborate collage. The tales that they tell about people who were mutilated by mines, about drugged murderous soldiers, about a mother desperately caressing a coffin so small that she cannot believe that it could contain her tall son, give Alexievich the opportunity to ask the question: “Who are we? How could all this be done to us and by us? Why did we believe it all?” This book is not only about war and criminal politics, but also about the clash of two entirely antithetical civilisations and the sheer senselessness and vanity of the idea of ever winning – whatever the superiority in arms technology – final victory over a demonized opponent. |