{"product_id":"an-armenian-sketchbook-paperback","title":"An Armenian Sketchbook - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eVasily Grossman\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eRobert Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by), \u003cb\u003eRobert Chandler\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn NYRB Classics Original \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFew writers had to confront as many of the last century's mass tragedies as Vasily Grossman, who wrote with terrifying clarity about the Shoah, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the Terror Famine in the Ukraine. \u003ci\u003eAn Armenian Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e, however, shows us a very different Grossman, notable for his tenderness, warmth, and sense of fun. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter the Soviet government confiscated--or, as Grossman always put it, \"arrested\"--\u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e, he took on the task of revising a literal Russian translation of a long Armenian novel. The novel was of little interest to him, but he needed money and was evidently glad of an excuse to travel to Armenia. \u003ci\u003eAn Armenian Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e is his account of the two months he spent there. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossman's works, endowed with an air of absolute spontaneity, as though he is simply chatting to the reader about his impressions of Armenia--its mountains, its ancient churches, its people--while also examining his own thoughts and moods. A wonderfully human account of travel to a faraway place, \u003ci\u003eAn Armenian Sketchbook\u003c\/i\u003e also has the vivid appeal of a self-portrait.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eVasily Semyonovich Grossman was born on December 12, 1905, in Berdichev, a Ukrainian town that was home to one of Europe's largest Jewish communities. In 1934 he published both \"In the Town of Berdichev\"--a short story that won the admiration of such diverse writers as Maksim Gorky, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Isaak Babel--and a novel, \u003ci\u003eGlyukauf\u003c\/i\u003e, about the life of the Donbass miners. During the Second World War, Grossman worked as a reporter for the army newspaper \u003ci\u003eRed Star\u003c\/i\u003e, covering nearly all of the most important battles from the defense of Moscow to the fall of Berlin. His vivid yet sober \"The Hell of Treblinka\" (late 1944), one of the first articles in any language about a Nazi death camp, was translated and used as testimony in the Nuremberg trials. His novel \u003ci\u003eFor a Just Cause\u003c\/i\u003e (originally titled \u003ci\u003eStalingrad\u003c\/i\u003e) was published to great acclaim in 1952 and then fiercely attacked. A new wave of purges--directed against the Jews--was about to begin; but for Stalin's death, in March 1953, Grossman would almost certainly have been arrested himself. During the next few years Grossman, while enjoying public success, worked on his two masterpieces, neither of which was to be published in Russia until the late 1980s: \u003ci\u003e Life and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Everything Flows\u003c\/i\u003e. The KGB confiscated the manuscript of\u003ci\u003e Life and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e in February 1961. Grossman was able, however, to continue working on \u003ci\u003eEverything Flows\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel even more critical of Soviet society than \u003ci\u003eLife and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e, until his last days in the hospital. He died on September 14, 1964, on the eve of the twenty-third anniversary of the massacre of the Jews of Berdichev in which his mother had died. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRobert Chandler is the author of \u003ci\u003eAlexander Pushkin\u003c\/i\u003e and the editor of two anthologies for Penguin Classics: \u003ci\u003eRussian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRussian Magic Tales from\u003cbr\u003ePushkin to Platonov\u003c\/i\u003e. His translations of Sappho and Guillaume Apollinaire are published in the Everyman's Poetry series. His translations from Russian include Vasily Grossman's\u003ci\u003e Life and Fate\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEverything Flows\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Road\u003c\/i\u003e (all published by NYRB Classics); Leskov's \u003ci\u003eLady Macbeth of Mtsensk\u003c\/i\u003e; and Aleksander Pushkin's \u003ci\u003eThe Captain's Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e. Together with Olga Meerson and his wife, Elizabeth, he has translated a number of works by Andrey Platonov. One of these, \u003ci\u003eSoul\u003c\/i\u003e, won the 2004 AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavonic and East European Languages) Prize. His translation of Hamid Ismailov's \u003ci\u003eThe Railway\u003c\/i\u003e won the AATSEEL Prize for 2007 and received a special commendation from the judges of the 2007 Rossica Translation Prize. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eElizabeth Chandler is a co-translator, with her husband, of Pushkin's \u003ci\u003eThe Captain's Daughter\u003c\/i\u003e; of Vasily Grossman's\u003ci\u003e Everything Flows\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Road\u003c\/i\u003e; and of several volumes of Andrey Platonov: \u003ci\u003eThe Return\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Portable Platonov\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHappy Moscow\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSoul\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYury Bit-Yunan was born in Bryansk, in western Russia. He graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, and completed his doctorate on the work of Vasily\u003cbr\u003eGrossman. At present he is lecturing on literary criticism at the Russian State University while continuing to research Grossman's life and work.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 160\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.46 x 8.03 x 5.24 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 19, 2013\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51771227144480,"sku":"9781590176184","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/9b1ae887d73fa2ff37d4355d2422118d.webp?v=1780383533","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/an-armenian-sketchbook-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}