This is not a book about strategies, battle plans, etc. - This is a book about the people involved in the Eastern theater of WWII.

Beautifully written, it gives a completely different perspective than your normal history book.

I found it extremely fascinating and enjoyable. Not the same as Kaputt, and not as highly regarded by most, but I like it just as much if not more. ( )

Intriguing collection of despatches from an Italian war correspondent who was on the Eastern Front in the Ukraine in 1941, and then on the Leningrad front in 1942. Very keenly observed vignettes, with a balanced attitude that got the author in trouble with German authorities. The collection only came out first in 1951 because of various mishaps. Only the reference to a German soldier with an Athenian owl is well known; more deserves to be. ( )

In una serie di saggi Malaparte descrive l'attacco tedesco alla Russia del 1942e l'assedio di San Pietroburgo. ( )

Being the first portion of the author's lyrical and insightful eastern front reportage on WWII. This is a very good book which largely lacks the poetry and insight of the other portion, yclept Kaputt. ( )

This is the first Eastern Front book that I have read, and perhaps it is not the best place to start for a military over-view, but Malaparte provides a fascinating look at an aspect of war in the Russian campaign that I suspect has precious little coverage in English. The first half of the book sees Malaparte following the front east, a few miles from the "action", encountering civilians and writing in a very detached, almost dreamlike fashion about his experiences. There are no recurring characters, there is little criticism of the German actions or policies that brought about the campaign (he does write about communism and how it has affected the civilians he meets to quite some extent), and it is an eery, poetic recount of snapshots into the life and death that he encountered on a daily basis. Half way through, and German intervention sees Malaparte "re-deploy" to the fight for Stalingrad, and we see a different situation, but still told in his thoroughly engaging style. I would not recommend this book to people who want maps, orders of battle, and discussions of tactics or grand strategies, but I would suggest that anyone interested in this campaign who wants to delve a little deeper than usual give this a read. It's quite short too, so won't take you long. ( )