Published by

Vremya, Russia

Hanser Berlin, Germany

Czarne, Poland

Ersatz; Sweden

Bompiani, Italy

Kagge, Norway

Shanghai Xiron, China

Penguin Random House, Barcelona

Geulhangari, South Korea

Iwanami Shoten, Japan

Región Projekt, Slovakia

Rayo Verde Editorial, Spain (Catalan)

Mamdouh Adwan Publishing House, Syria

Fan Noli, Albania

Companhia das Letras, Brazil

Lindhardt og Ringhof, Denmark

De Bezige Bij, The Netherlands

20|20 EDITORA, Portugal

Grup Media Litera, Romania

Penguin Random House, USA

Penguin Classics, UK 

Bukinist, Armenia

Owl Publishing House, Taiwan

Európa Publishers, Hungary

Paradox, Bulgaria

Begemot Dooel, Macedonia

Laguna, Serbia

Buzuku, Kosovo

Khuc Thi Hoa Phuong Women Publishing House, Vietnam

TEAS Press, Azerbaijan

Europa publishers, Hungary

Edicije Bozicevic, Croatia

Neyestan Publishing, Iran

Presses de la Renaissance, France

Intelekti Publishing, Georgia

Companhia das Letras, Brazil

Bukinist, Armenia

Neyestan, Iran

In this book that has been published also in 1985, Alexievich assembles reports of people who were children during World War II and who now recount their childhood experiences of war. Many of them had to witness their villages being burnt down, their parents slaughtered or hanged before their eyes, and some escaped the murder squads by mere chance themselves. The naïve child’s perspective effectively prevents all ideological clichés and makes for a detached view that drives home the lunatic absurdity of war.