Grossman Vasily. An Armenian Sketchbook

New York: NYRB, 2012. Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler
Title of the Russian original: Welcome to you!
The book was published in Russian in 1962.Vasily Grossman, remembered for the terrifying clarity with which he wrote about the Holocaust and the Battle of Stalingrad. An Armenian Sketchbook is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossman's works, and is remarkable for its warmth, humour and spontaneity. Months after the 'arrest' by the Soviet government of his masterpiece Life and Fate, Grossman took on the task of revising a Russian translation of a lengthy Armenian novel.
A wonderful sense of common humanity. Grossman went to Armenia when distressed by the arrest of Life and Fate and the breaking up of his marriage. He went as a 'translator' who did not know anything of the language (!) and he did not seem to make friends with the writer and other intellectuals he worked with. This gives the narrative a special charm because he is rather isolated, responds reflectively to the landscape (he is very funny about how stony the whole country is) and mixes with the poor peasants. (George Marsh review)