Svetlana Alexievich. Last Witnesses

Proposal

Published by

Vremya, Russia
Suhrkamp, Germany
Czarne, Poland
Ersatz; Sweden
Bompiani, Italy
Kagge, Norway
Citic, China
Penguin Random House, Spain
Geulhangari, South Korea
Iwanami Shoten, Japan
Absynt, Slovakia
Rayo Verde Editorial, Spain (Catalan)
Mamdouh Adwan Publishing House, Syria
Fan Noli, Albania (rights have been reverted)
Companhia das Letras, Brazil
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
Paradox, Bulgaria
Laguna, Serbia (rights have been reverted)
Buzuku, Kosovo (rights have been reverted)
Women Publishing House, Vietnam (rights have been reverted)
TEAS Press, Azerbaijan
Edicije Bozicevic, Croatia
Neyestan Publishing, Iran
Plon, France
Artanuji Publishing, Georgia
Companhia das Letras, Brazil
Folio, Ukraine
Epsilon, Turkey
Palomar, Denmark
Založba Goga, Slovenia
Latvijas Mediji, Latvia
Alama Litera, Lithuania
Begemot, North Macedonia (rights have been reverted)
Pistorius & Olšanská, Czech Republic
H&C, India (Kerala)

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.