Reddit mentions of Life and Fate (New York Review Books Classics)

I really love the novel Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. It's a novel, but it's a thinly fictionalized version of his experiences in WWII and afterwards.

There is a letter that one of the characters writes to his mother. It's what the author wanted to write to his mother, who was exterminated by the Nazis when they invaded. It made me cry for hours.

I haven't read either of the titles that you posted, but will note that Vasily Grossman's 'Life and Fate' is a major novel re: Stalingrad. Grossman was a Soviet writer who served during WWII and has got to be up there with Solzhenitsyn.

Life and Fate by Grossman is a modern (ww2) war and peace

Try Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman. It's not really alternate countries etc, but it is fiction set on the Eastern Front during world war 2. It has a similar framework to War and Peace, so it can be intimidating, but I found it incredibly rich in detail.

The guy who wrote it was a famous war correspondent during world war 2, and knows how to tell a tale.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Fate-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590172019

My favorite writer is Soviet, and I cant even read his greatest work.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Fate-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590172019

Its just way too long. His account of the Eastern Front though, is seminal, along with some stuff by Ilya Ehrenberg.

Life and Fate, V. Grossman