And Quiet Flows the Don
First part of the novel Tikhy Don by Mikhail Sholokhov. The Russian novel was published between 1928 and 1940; the English translation of the first part appeared in 1934. The Don Flows Home to the Sea, part two of the original novel, was published in English translation in 1940.  Set in the Don River basin of southwestern Russia at the end of the czarist period, the novel traces the progress of the Cossack Gregor Melekhov from youthful lover to Red Army soldier and finally to Cossack nationalist. War--in the form of both international conflict and civil revolution--provides the epic backdrop for the narrative and determines its tone of moral ambiguity.  --The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature