Boys in Zinc

Haunting stories from the Soviet-Afghan War from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature br>br>- A new translation of Zinky Boys based on the revised text - br>br>From 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. Boys in Zinc presents the honest testimonies of soldiers, doctors and nurses, mothers, wives and siblings who describe the lasting effects of war. br>br>Weaving 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, Boys in Zinc sparked huge controversy for its unflinching, harrowing insight into the realities of war.>

About the author

Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ivano-Frankivsk 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, distinctive non-fiction genre which brings together a chorus of voices to describe a specific historical moment. Her works include The Unwomanly Face of War (1985), Last Witnesses (1985), Boys in Zinc (1991), Chernobyl Prayer (1997) and Second-Hand 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'.

Product details

• Authors: Svetlana Alexievich, Alexievich Svetlana, Svetlana Alexijevich, Andrew Bromfield
• Assisted by: Andrew Bromfield (Translation), Bromfield Andrew (Translation)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 06.10.2016
• EAN: 9780241264119
• ISBN: 978-0-241-26411-9
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 17 mm
• Series: Penguin Classics; Modern Classics; Penguin Modern Classics; Penguin Modern Classics; Penguin Classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Journalism, HISTORY / Military / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, military history, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General, HISTORY / Asia / Central Asia, Reportage & collected journalism, Far-left political ideologies and movements, Modern warfare, c 1980 to c 1989, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, Marxism & Communism, Cold wars and proxy conflicts