Zach’s Reviews > Stalingrad > Status Update

Pryakhin: “We have to love life, all life…You’re a destroyer of the old, but are you a builder of the new?…If you love her, you must fight for your happiness.”

Kronos: “No…it’s not the right time. If I stay alive, maybe we’ll meet some other time.”

Pryakhin: “That’s a great pity. I thought I could help you rebuild your life.”

Flux & Love: The two great themes in Stalingrad.

I don’t know how else to describe this other than you feel like you’re reading real life. Sometimes episodes contain whole novels, and it’s just a paragraph of someone suffering (who you never see again). Equally exhausting and exhilarating book.

Novikov’s first day of the war chapter was a twenty page chapter that flew—and felt like an entire film.

This is why you read. Incredible. I’m not reading a story, this isn’t something you like or dislike; it’s honest: I’m reading about people. I hope to write like this someday.