{"title":"Books by Svetlana Alexievich","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780241270530","title":"Chernobyl Prayer","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Nobel Prize in Literature\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Desperately important and impossible to put down. It is timeless. . . what shines clear from the testimonies is love - love which can make you do the most spectacular things ' Sheena Patel, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'- A new translation of \u003ci\u003eVoices\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003efrom Chernobyl\u003c\/i\u003e based on the revised version -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn April 1986 a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, \u003ci\u003eChernobyl Prayer\u003c\/i\u003e shows what it is like to bear witness, and remember in a world that wants you to forget.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Beautifully written. . . heart-breaking' - Arundhati Roy, \u003ci\u003eElle\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the most humane and terrifying books I've ever read' - Helen Simpson, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201553367218,"sku":"9780241270530","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241270530_efb567a8-2882-4ce2-bf2c-5a8dfb60f61f.jpg?v=1786012777"},{"product_id":"9780241264119","title":"Boys in Zinc","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHaunting stories from the Soviet-Afghan War from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- A new translation of \u003ci\u003eZinky Boys\u003c\/i\u003e based on the revised text -\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom 1979 to 1989 Soviet troops engaged in a devastating war in Afghanistan that claimed thousands of casualties on both sides. While the Soviet Union talked about a 'peace-keeping' mission, the dead were shipped back in sealed zinc coffins. \u003ci\u003eBoys in Zinc\u003c\/i\u003e presents the honest testimonies of soldiers, doctors and nurses, mothers, wives and siblings who describe the lasting effects of war.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWeaving together their stories, Svetlana Alexievich shows us the truth of the Soviet-Afghan conflict: the killing and the beauty of small everyday moments, the shame of returned veterans, the worries of all those left behind. When it was first published in the USSR in 1991, \u003ci\u003eBoys in Zinc\u003c\/i\u003e sparked huge controversy for its unflinching, harrowing insight into the realities of war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201556283570,"sku":"9780241264119","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241264119.jpg?v=1786012767"},{"product_id":"9781910695111","title":"Second-hand Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eSecond-hand Time\u003c\/em\u003e, her masterpiece, 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich brings together the voices of dozens of witnesses to the collapse of the USSR in a formidable attempt to chart the disappearance of a culture and to surmise what new kind of man may emerge from the rubble. Fashioning a singular, polyphonic literary form by combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, Alexievich creates a magnificent requiem to a civilization in ruins, a brilliant, poignant and unique portrait of post-Soviet society out of the stories of ordinary women and men.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205882314930,"sku":"9781910695111","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781910695111_8cd7a087-d31b-4d98-a8c1-bade42ce80ee.jpg?v=1786028969"},{"product_id":"9780141983530","title":"The Unwomanly Face of War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A must read' - Margaret Atwood\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It would be hard to find a book that feels more important or original' - Viv Groskop, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExtraordinary stories from Soviet women who fought in the Second World War - from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Why, having stood up for and held their own place in a once absolutely male world, have women not stood up for their history? Their words and feelings? A whole world is hidden from us. Their war remains unknown... I want to write the history of that war. A women's history.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich set out to write her first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Unwomanly Face of War\u003c\/i\u003e, when she realized that she grew up surrounded by women who had fought in the Second World War but whose stories were absent from official narratives. Travelling thousands of miles, she spent years interviewing hundreds of Soviet women - captains, tank drivers, snipers, pilots, nurses and doctors - who had experienced the war on the front lines, on the home front and in occupied territories. As it brings to light their most harrowing memories, this symphony of voices reveals a different side of war, a new range of feelings, smells and colours.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter completing the manuscript in 1983, Alexievich was not allowed to publish it because it went against the state-sanctioned history of the war. With the dawn of Perestroika, a heavily censored edition came out in 1985 and it became a huge bestseller in the Soviet Union - the first in five books that have established her as the conscience of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206021742770,"sku":"9780141983530","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141983530_fdab67bf-c6f0-4141-9b4f-30c4f10fca3b.jpg?v=1786011026"},{"product_id":"9781501726903","title":"In Search of the Free Individual","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"I love life in its living form, life that's found on the street, in human conversations, shouts, and moans.\" So begins this speech delivered in Russian at Cornell University by Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature.\u003cb\u003e In poetic language, Alexievich traces the origins of her deeply affecting blend of journalism, oral history, and creative writing.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCornell Global Perspectives is an imprint of Cornell University's Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. The works examine critical global challenges, often from an interdisciplinary perspective, and are intended for a non-specialist audience. The Distinguished Speaker Series presents edited transcripts of talks delivered at Cornell, both in the original language and in translation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301980123509,"sku":"9781501726903","price":6.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781501726903_6a5773c5-559c-4d0f-bc47-49e2403bcebd.jpg?v=1786022245"},{"product_id":"9780141983561","title":"Last Witnesses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSelected as a Book of the Year 2019 by \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Astonishing. . . Like the great Russian novels, these testimonials ring with emotional truth' - Caroline Moorehead, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExtraordinary stories about what it was like to be a Soviet child during the upheaval and horror of the Second World War, from Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War? In the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich started interviewing people who had experienced war as children, the generation that survived and had to live with the trauma that would forever change the course of the Russian nation. With remarkable care and empathy, Alexievich gives voice to those whose stories are lost in the official narratives, uncovering a powerful, hidden history of one of the most important events of the twentieth century.Published to great acclaim in the USSR in 1985 and now available in English for the first time, this masterpiece offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human consequences of the war - and an extraordinary chronicle of the Russian soul.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311575937397,"sku":"9780141983561","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141983561_10815fbf-8231-4208-97a2-76e5fc813bcb.jpg?v=1786011027"},{"product_id":"chernobyl-prayer","title":"Chernobyl Prayer","description":"In April 1986, a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While the official Soviet narrative downplayed the consequences, Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, spent years collecting testimonies from survivors: clean-up workers, firefighters, widows, children growing up in the disaster's long shadow, assembling their voices into a haunting oral history full of fear and anger, but also extraordinary tenderness, courage and wisdom. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, Chernobyl Prayer is a deeply humane masterpiece that bears witness to the catastrophe’s indelible impact, raising profound questions about humanity and nature, community, power and sacrifice.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57695282954613,"sku":"9781804273067","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804273067.jpg?v=1793032835"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-svetlana-alexievich.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}