NB: This was written for the Jewish Book Week 2011 programme, where JWS will be appearing

Vassily Grossman

I was having coffee with the master of my old college, Mark Damazer — who until recently was the controller of Radio 4 — when he made the striking statement that the 1959 novel Life and Fate, by Vassily Grossman, is “quite possibly the best book in the world.” This, of course, piqued my interest. I bought a copy. As thick as my daughter’s fist, and with just-big-enough print, Life and Fate tells the story of C20th Russia through the eyes of a single Jewish family, the Shaposhnikovs. Every page is dense with a vivid and intimate beauty, all set within a grand, sweeping narrative. The novel was confiscated by the KGB, and remained unpublished until it was smuggled into the West in 1980, where it was hailed as a masterpiece. In September, Radio 4 are going to have a Vassily Grossman season; I would heartily recommend everyone to read this book, which I inherited from Mark, in advance. He could just be right. It could be the best novel in the world.