Overview
'One of the greatest novels of the Second World War' The Times. 'A remarkable find' Antony Beevor. 'A masterpiece' Mail on Sunday. Stalingrad, November 1942. Lieutenant Breuer dreams of returning home for Christmas. But he and his fellow German soldiers will spend winter in a frozen hell – as snow, ice and relentless Soviet assaults reduce the once-mighty Sixth Army to a diseased and starving rabble. Breakout at Stalingrad is a stark and terrifying portrait of the horrors of war, and a profoundly humane depiction of comradeship in adversity. The book itself has an extraordinary story behind it. Its author fought at Stalingrad and was imprisoned by the Soviets. In captivity, he wrote a novel based on his experiences, which the Soviets confiscated before releasing him. Gerlach resorted to hypnosis to remember his narrative, and in 1957 it was published as The Forsaken Army. Fifty-five years later Carsten Gansel, an academic, came across the original manuscript of Gerlach's novel in a Moscow archive. This first translation into English of Breakout at Stalingrad includes the story of Gansel's sensational discovery.
Full Product Details
Author: Heinrich Gerlach ,
Carsten Gansel ,
Peter Lewis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Apollo
Dimensions:
Width: 13.00cm
, Height: 4.80cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.480kg
ISBN: 9781786690630
ISBN 10: 1786690632
Pages: 720
Publication Date: 09 August 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Language: German
Reviews
'Gerlach records the lives and feelings of soldiers of all ranks' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 'Anyone who wants an idea of what Stalingrad was really like should read this book' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 'This excellent book will shine a light on the horrors of the Eastern Front for a new generation of English-speaking readers ... An absolute gem of a book' Soldier magazine. 'All this material is so deftly handled and well constructed that it is astonishing that Breakout at Stalingrad is Gerlach's first attempt at fiction' The Sunday Times. 'Few novels contain such an extraordinary story behind their publication as this one ... A remarkable find' The Times. 'Gerlach was among the wounded [at Stalingrad] and his truly magnificent novel [...] is a devastating account of the appalling privations suffered by the German army, left to their fate by the German army, left to their fate by the foundering, over-stretched Fatherland. A masterpiece' Mail on Sunday. 'One of the greatest novels of the Second World War' The Times.
Author Information
Heinrich Gerlach served as a lieutenant in the 14th Panzer Division at Stalingrad. Wounded and then captured by the Soviets, he wrote Breakout at Stalingrad while being held in captivity in the USSR. He died in 1991.
