November 1942 - An Intimate History of the Turning Point of the Second World War

*A Telegraph History Book of the Year, 2023* ''An astonishing achievement'' ANTONY BEEVOR ''A remarkably moving and humane book'' WILLIAM BOYD An intimate history of the most important month of the Second World War as experienced by those who lived through it, completely based on their diaries, letters and memoirs. At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could win the war; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between came el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea, and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. In this innovatively kaleidoscopic and riveting historical marvel, Peter Englund reduces these epoch-making events to their basic component: the individual experience. In thirty memorable days we meet characters including a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a prisoner in Treblinka; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman, and Vera Brittain. We also witness the launch of SS James Oglethorpe ; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor; and the making of Casablanca. ''Extraordinary ... an original panorama of humankind''s most destructive war'' New York Times ''Superb ... a stimulating read'' New Statesman Not since Englund''s own The Beauty and the Sorrow has a book given us one of the most dramatic periods of human history in all its immensity and emotional range.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Englund, Englund Peter
• Assisted by: Peter Graves (Translation), Graves Peter (Translation)
• Publisher: Vintage UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 07.11.2024
• EAN: 9781529923698
• ISBN: 978-1-5299-2369-8
• No. of pages: 496
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 197 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Oral History, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Diaries & Journals, HISTORY / Military / General, HISTORY / World, military history, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Letters, Second World War, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), Diaries, letters and journals, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), True war and combat stories, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General