Vasily Grossman was born in 1905. In 1941, he became a war reporter for the Red Army newspaper Red Star and came to be regarded as a legendary war hero. Life and Fate, his masterpiece, was considered a threat to the totalitarian regime, and Grossman was told that there was no chance of the novel being published for another 200 years. Grossman died in 1964.
Robert Chandler is the celebrated translator of Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. He has edited and translated numerous Russian titles, including the complete works of Platonov. He is the editor of Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida