For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been the memory and conscience of the twentieth century. When the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize, it cited her invention of “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions . . . a history of the soul.”
In The Unwomanly Face of War, Alexievich chronicles the experiences of the Soviet women who fought on the front lines, on the home front, and in the occupied territories. These women—more than a million in total—were nurses and doctors, pilots, tank drivers, machine-gunners, and snipers. They battled alongside men, and yet, after the victory, their efforts and sacrifices were forgotten.
Alexievich traveled thousands of miles and visited more than a hundred towns to record these women’s stories. Together, this symphony of voices reveals a different aspect of the war—the everyday details of life in combat left out of the official histories.
Translated by the renowned Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, The Unwomanly Face of War is a powerful and poignant account of the central conflict of the twentieth century, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human side of war.
“But why? I asked myself more than once. 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? They did not believe themselves. A whole world is hidden from us. Their war remains unknown . . . I want to write the history of that war. A women’s history.”—Svetlana Alexievich
THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
“for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”
Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, in 1948 and has spent most of her life in the Soviet Union and present-day Belarus, with prolonged periods of exile in Western Europe. Starting out as a journalist, she developed her own nonfiction genre, which gathers a chorus of voices to describe a specific historical moment. Her works include The Unwomanly Face of War (1985), Last Witnesses (1985), Zinky Boys (1990), Voices from Chernobyl (1997), and Secondhand Time (2013). She has won many international awards, including the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”
静静的村庄飘着白的雪 阴霾的天空下鸽子飞翔 白桦树刻着那两个名字 他们发誓相爱用尽这一生 有一天战火烧到了家乡 小伙子拿起枪奔赴边疆 心上人你不要为我担心 等着我回来在那片白桦林 …… 天空依然阴霾依然有鸽子在飞翔 谁来证明那些没有墓碑的爱情和生命 雪依然在下那村庄...
评分这本书是2015年诺贝尔文学奖获得者,白俄罗斯作家阿列克谢耶维奇的作品之一,或者说,由这本尚显稚嫩的书开始,作者开启了自己一系列的纪实作品。 这是一部苏德战争纪实,记录的是二战中被大家忽视的女兵的经历与感受。她们在战争中的角色不仅是战地护士、医生、炊事等后勤人...
评分2015年诺贝尔文学奖获得者作品,口述史类的作品总是更能让人触碰到大历史下的纤细触角,在这本书里遇见的是二战苏联女兵。 印象深刻的是书里说,在幸存女兵的回忆里,战场上从来没有什么浪漫的英雄。她们所看到的,除了灭绝人性的纳粹德国军官,还有在敌占区强抢平民百姓口粮的...
评分几天前看到一个禁止再版书籍的名单,这本书赫然在列。真没想到啊…… 其实决定买这本书,2015年亚马逊双十一促销凑单还差一点,就想到了那一年的诺贝尔文学奖获奖作品,看封面联想到了苏联女兵们,想到了那部《这里黎明静悄悄》,才决定入手。而且很喜欢封面的元素,苏联女兵的...
评分年少时,我曾痴迷于图书上,电影里,游戏中那驰骋疆场,雄才大略,横刀立马的大将军,梦想有一天,自己能够统率千军,南征北战,但有那么一天,当你穿上戎装奔赴疆场,炮弹划破云霾,发出着尖利的叫声,在地面上砸出大坑。四散的土块,死人的肢体乱飞一气,天空中下着小雨,你...
我必须承认,这本书的节奏掌控得非常好,起承转合之间充满了张弛有度的设计感。在某些关键情节的处理上,作者采用了大量的留白技巧,这反而激发了读者自身的想象和思考,使得故事的深度得以极大地延展。每一次情节的推进都仿佛是精心设计的棋局,每一步都暗藏玄机,让人忍不住想要一探究竟。特别是在人物关系网的梳理上,复杂交织的人物命运被梳理得井井有条,即便角色众多,读者也能清晰地把握住每个人的动机和作用。这种精密的结构安排,体现了作者深厚的功力,读起来让人感到一种由内而外的满足感,仿佛完成了一次智力上的挑战。
评分这本书的叙事方式真是引人入胜,仿佛作者直接将你带入那个特定的历史时刻,让你亲身体验到那些人物的挣扎与坚韧。开篇的场景构建极其细腻,无论是对环境的描绘还是人物内心活动的刻画,都充满了张力。我尤其欣赏作者在处理复杂人性方面的深刻洞察力,那些在极端环境下展现出的矛盾情感,被描绘得淋漓尽致,让人读完后久久不能忘怀。它不仅仅是一部简单的历史记录,更像是一次对人类精神力量的深度探索。这本书的语言风格成熟老练,用词考究,既有文学作品的韵味,又不失纪实文学的力度,使得整个阅读过程如同品味一壶陈年的佳酿,回味无穷。
评分这本书最让我感到震撼的是其对情感细节的捕捉能力。它不像某些作品那样,仅仅停留在宏大叙事的层面,而是深入到个体生命最微小、最私密的角落。那些关于日常琐碎、转瞬即逝的情绪波动,都被作者用近乎诗意的笔触记录下来。例如,对某个特定物品的执着,或是某个不经意的眼神交流,都被赋予了超越表象的重量。这种对“微观世界”的关注,让故事充满了人情味和温度,使得原本可能显得冰冷的历史背景变得鲜活可触。读到某些段落时,我甚至能感受到那种近乎切肤的痛楚和微弱的希望之光,这是一种非常罕见且宝贵的阅读体验。
评分从文学技巧的角度来看,这本书的叙事视角转换非常灵活且自然。作者似乎总能找到最恰当的角度来审视正在发生的一切,时而是冷静的观察者,时而又化身为某个身处其中的个体,这种多维度的审视,极大地丰富了作品的层次感。书中穿插的一些富有哲理性的独白,虽然篇幅不长,却像是点睛之笔,一下子将读者的思绪从具体的事件中抽离出来,进行更高层次的思考。它迫使你重新审视那些你习以为常的观念,去质疑、去探索更深层的真理。这本书无疑是那种需要被反复阅读、每次都会有新发现的作品。
评分这本书的语言风格充满了力量感,但这种力量并非来自于夸张的辞藻堆砌,而是源于其内在的逻辑性和不可辩驳的真实感。作者在构建场景时,大量运用了感官描写,使得读者仿佛能闻到空气中的气味,听到远处的声响,这种沉浸式的体验是极其强大的。尤其是那些关于冲突和抉择的描写,没有丝毫的煽情或说教,只是冷静地陈述事实和人物的选择,但恰恰是这种克制,将事件的残酷性和人物的伟大衬托得更加彻底。读完之后,心中留下的不是短暂的激动,而是一种沉甸甸的敬意和对人性复杂性的深刻理解,它真正做到了“润物细无声”地改变读者的认知框架。
评分Brigitte的圣诞礼物
评分这是一本关于痛苦的书,也是一本关于真相的书。作者走访了上百位曾在苏德战争(伟大卫国战争)时期参战的苏联女兵,倾听她们的诉说,记录她们的苦难,然后用一段段真实的回忆文字,向读者展示被宏大叙事和辉煌胜利所掩盖的无数普通人的牺牲和泪水。在春节假期的这几天,我无数次地被残酷的真相所震撼,被高贵的人性所感动……
评分"For me one human being is so much." I LOVE Alexievich's impeccable curation, thanks to which the powerful voices of women soldiers', and thus human spirits, got to be preserved in this powerful book. War is brutal. But human feelings are bigger. Oh and the star couple translators in Volokhonsky and Pevear makes this English version even better.
评分Brigitte的圣诞礼物
评分如果去掉作者唠唠叨叨的前十章就更好了…