Until now it had been included in the volume Years of War. Vasili Grossman wrote three novels about World War II, each of which offers a different vision of what a war novel can be, and all of them extraordinary. Stalingrad and Life and Fate are united by a set of common characters, but Stalingrad is not only a moving and exciting story of the desperate defense of the city and the turning of the tide of the war, but also a monument to the memory of the countless killed in that battle. Life and Destiny, by contrast, is a work of moral and political philosophy as well as a novel, and the profound question it explores is whether or not it is possible to behave ethically in the face of overwhelming violence. The town is immortal is something totally different. Written in 1942 and set in the catastrophic first months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, it is the story of a Soviet army battalion sent to stop the enemy advance at any cost, with encirclement and annihilation as the inevitable end. A passionate story of resistance and humanity filled once again with unforgettable scenes and characters.