Peter Englund November 1942 : An Intimate History of the Turning Point of the

A Telegraph Best History Book of 2023An astonishing achievement ANTONY BEEVORAn intimate history of the most important month of the Second World War as experienced by those who lived through it, completely based on their diaries, letters and memoirs. At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could win the war at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between came elAlamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea, and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. In this innovatively kaleidoscopic and riveting historical marvel, Peter Englund reduces these epochmaking events to their basic component the individual experience. In thirty memorable days we meet characters including a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad an Italian truck driver in the North African desert a partisan in the Belarussian forests a machine gunner in a British bomber a twelveyearold girl in Shanghai a university student in Paris a housewife on Long Island a prisoner in Treblinka Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman, and Vera Brittain. We also witness the launch of SS James Oglethorpe the fate of U604, a German submarine the building of the first nuclear reactor and the making of Casablanca. Not since Englunds own The Beauty and the Sorrow has a book given us one of the most dramatic periods of human history in all its immensity and emotional range. Thoughtprovoking SUNDAY... | Peter Englund November 1942 : An Intimate History of the Turning Point of the