num_pages: 133
description: An NYRB Classics OriginalFew writers had to confront as many of the last centurys mass tragedies as Vasily Grossman who wrote with terrifying clarity about the Shoah the Battle of Stalingrad and the Terror Famine in the Ukraine. An Armenian Sketchbook however shows us a very different Grossman notable for his tenderness warmth and sense of fun. After the Soviet Government confiscatedor as Grossman always put it arrestedLife and Fate he took on the task of revising a literal Russian translation of a long Armenian novel. The novel was of little interest to him but he needed money and was evidently glad of an excuse to travel to Armenia. An Armenian Sketchbook is his account of the two months he spent there. This is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossmans works endowed with an air of absolute spontaneity as though he is simply chatting to the reader about his impressions of Armeniaits mountains its ancient churches its peoplewhile also examining his own thoughts and moods. A wonderfully human account of travel to a faraway place An Armenian Sketchbook also has the vivid appeal of a self-portrait.
language: English
title: An Armenian Sketchbook
publisher: NYRB Classics