Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II

"Any of her books could take this one’s place on this list – her whole body of work is brilliant, and totally diminished by people calling it ‘social history.’ Her skill is way bigger than that. She is one of the greatest writers of our age. This is an early work, recording and retelling the stories of elderly Soviet citizens about the days in the Second World War when the war reached their villages. Children’s memories of hell being unleashed. It is the most beautiful, brilliant, heartbreakingly sad book I have ever read. My friend Casiana at Penguin publishes her work and I beg for each work as they are translated, like I am a drug addict. I’ve always felt that if we are to try and add to the canon of fine writing, we should be aware how good the best stuff is. For me that means reading the best writers in the world of the past and the present, and trying—perhaps in vain—to raise our efforts to their level. Svetlana Alexievich is on the top rung of the literary latter in our age. I am a bit indifferent to most English writing or reading just from one genre, as I feel like we are missing the good stuff for something familiar and local. I want to go wherever in the world great writers take me, and to have my beliefs shaped and changed by their poetry. I love books by authors that see the world differently to me."