Svetlana Alexievich. Last Witnesses

Proposal

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
De Bezige Bij, The Netherlands
20|20 Editora, Portugal
Grup Media Litera, Romania
Penguin Random House, USA
Penguin Classics, UKÂ
Bukinist, Armenia
Owl Publishing House, Taiwan
Európa Publishers, Hungary
Paradox, Bulgaria
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
Folio, Ukraine
Epsilon Yayincilik Ltd., Turkey
Palomar, Denmark
Založba Goga, Slovenia

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.