In the summer of 1941 as the Germans invade Russia, Soviet Army's newspaper reporter Vasily Grossman is swept up into the frontlines of war and witnesses some of the most savage atrocities in Russian history.

As Grossman follows the Red Army from the defense of Moscow, to the carnage at Stalingrad, to the Nazi genocide in Treblinka, his writings paint a vividly raw and devastating account of Operation Barbarossa during World War Two. Grossman's notebooks, war diaries, personal correspondence and newspaper articles are meticulously woven into a gripping narrative and provide a piercing look into the life of the author behind Life and Fate - dubbed the twentieth century War and Peace. A Writer at War stands as an unforgettable eyewitness account of the Eastern Front and places Grossman as the leading Soviet voice of `the ruthless truth of war'.

`A remarkable addition to the literature of 1941-45...a wonderful portrait of the wartime experience of Russia... A worthy memorial to a remarkable man' Sunday Telegraph