Julia Emelin and Yelena Shmulenson both give sublime performances of this exceptional work by Nobel laureate Alexievich. This compilation of WWII reminiscences by female veterans of the Red Army was first published nearly 35 years ago and was controversial for its unvarnished view of the war, with the author even being sued for slander a number of years later. These women veterans recall how brutal and horrible their service was. Alexievich’s work is a feminine view of the war—many of the woman longed for the feminine aspects of life when they found themselves in such a brutal and overwhelmingly male world. Emelin’s and Shmulenson’s Slavic accents make it seem as though one is hearing each veteran speak herself. Their expression and inflection are perfect. Some male accounts are performed by two additional performers. After beginning this work, it’s next to impossible to stop listening. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

…magnificent and harrowing…Alexievich charts an extraordinary event through intimate interviews with its ordinary witnesses. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's fluent translation…breathes new life into the memories of the war's female combatants.

A monument to courage . . . It would be hard to find a book that feels more important or original. . . . [Svetlana] Alexievich’s account of the second world war as seen through the eyes of hundreds of women is an extraordinary thing. . . . Her achievement is as breathtaking as the experiences of these women are awe-inspiring.”—The Guardian
 
“Magnificent . . . After decades of the war being remembered by ‘men writing about men,’ she aims to give voice to an aging generation of women who found themselves dismissed not just as storytellers but also as veterans, mothers and even potential wives. . . . Alexievich presents less a straightforward oral history of World War II than a literary excavation of memory itself.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Could not have appeared at a more opportune time . . . Women did everything—this book reminds and reveals. They learned to pilot planes and drop bombs, to shoot targets from great distances. . . . Alexievich has turned their voices into history’s psalm.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Harrowing and moving . . . Alexievich did an enormous service, recovering these stories. . . .The Unwomanly Face of War tells the story of these forgotten women, and its great achievement is that it gives credit to their contribution but also to the hell they endured.”—The Washington Post
 
“We should resolve to read this book alongside the world news report. . . .  Ms. Alexievich never tries to simplify. . . . Refusing to pass judgment, crediting all, she listens, suffers and brings to life. . . . It took years and many miles of traveling to find and capture all the testimonies here. . . . We still end up feeling that we have been sitting at her side. With her, we hear the memories of partisans, guerrilla fighters trapped behind the lines.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Alexievich has forged her own distinctive identity: as a witness to witnesses who usually go unheard. . . . In a ‘post-truth’ era when journalism is under pressure—susceptible to propaganda, sensationalism, and ‘alternative facts’—the power of documentary literature stands out more clearly than ever. . . . Listen to Alexievich.”—The Atlantic
 
“[A] remarkable collection of testimonies . . . Sitting at kitchen tables, Alexievich coaxes out of the women stories that describe a reality vastly different from the officially sanctioned version. . . . They speak guardedly but vividly of fleeting encounters, deep relationships, unexpressed feelings.”—The New Yorker
 
“Continually shocking and tearjerking . . . The introductory materials here, in which Alexievich quotes from the journals she kept while working on the project and from her later reflections and dealings with censors, are as compelling as the primary text.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Alexievich gives us an idea of how the army women were perceived by society, during the war and afterwards. . . . These voices, thanks to Alexievich, have themselves become part of history.”—Financial Times

06/01/2017
A worldwide best seller when it was originally published in Russian in 1985, this work by Nobel Prize winner Alexievich (Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets) combines hundreds of oral history accounts with the author's own reflections. Alexievich conducted these interviews between 1978 and 1985, intending to capture "women's history of war." There are reminiscences from nurses, doctors, pilots, airplane mechanics, tank drivers, and countless others who served the Soviet war machine in some capacity. Other "backstage" women recount doing the laundry, cooking, baking, cleaning, tending horses, repairing machinery, and delivering the mail. Alexievich not only records the experiences of others but provides her own reactions as she listens to their accounts—notably the pain, hurt, and pride felt by all. She comments on what women wanted to remember and what they were reluctant to share; these were "good and honest" people, in the words of one interviewee, who believed in the communist idea. VERDICT An engaging and readable history for anyone interested in World War II, women's history, and personal memoirs.—Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

★ 2017-05-10
The Nobel laureate (2015) writes about "the wrong kind of war": oral confessions from Russian women intimately involved with fighting for the motherland.In her distinctive nonfiction style, a mix of her own reflections and transcribed, edited interviews with diverse Russians who have lived through decades of hardship, Alexievich (Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, 2016, etc.) focuses on women who recounted to her amazing stories of their participation in World War II. Although first published in Russia in 1985, with an English-language version published in Moscow in 1988, this version features a sprightly new translation and a restoration—as the author notes in her introductory remarks—of material "the censors" threw out as being unheroic or unpatriotic. As Alexievich writes, war is traditionally known through male voices, yet Russian women, fired up by the urgency to push back the invading Germans, took up the military challenge and demonstrated enormous courage and ability. However, women were often silenced after the war, since assuming traditionally male military duties was seen as unwomanly—indeed, who would marry them? Alexievich writes movingly of how these extremely strong, now-elderly women had rarely been encouraged to tell their stories, but they eventually opened up under her gentle questioning and attention. Most often very young when recruited, the women reveal how they had to beg their male officers to allow them to get to the front line; once they mastered their tasks, the men were amazed at what they could do, and the Germans were horrified to learn that many of the snipers were women. Moreover, beyond their military prowess, of which they were very proud, the women offer touching, intimate details about their service—e.g., being assigned too-large boots and clothing, the shame of having to wear men's underwear and managing their periods, finding love, and the ability to feel empathy for the starving German children after the war. Essential reading full of remarkable emotional wealth.