November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II -- Peter Englund, Hardcover

An intimate history of the most important month of World War II, completely based on the diaries, letters and memoirs of the people who lived through it

At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could still win the Second World War; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between were el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. It may have been the most important thirty days of the twentieth century. In this hugely innovative and riveting history, Peter Englund has reduced an epoch-making event to its basic component: the individual experience.

Englund's narrative is based solely on what he learned from the writings of soldiers and ordinary citizens alike. They comprise a remarkable, deeply personal resource. In thirty memorable days, among those we meet are: a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an American pilot on Guadalcanal; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a shipwrecked Chinese sailor; a prisoner in Treblinka; a Korean "comfort woman" in Mandalay; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman and Vera Brittain--forty characters in all. In addition, we experience the construction and launching of SS James Oglethorpe, a Liberty ship built in Savannah; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor in Chicago; and the making of Casablanca.

Not since the publication of the author's last book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, which similarly looked at the First World War, have we had such a mesmerizing work of history.

Author: Peter Englund
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 11/21/2023
Pages: 496
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.88lbs
Size: 9.58h x 6.53w x 1.45d
ISBN: 9781524733315

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2023 pg. 15
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 09/04/2023
Library Journal 10/01/2023 pg. 132
Booklist 11/01/2023 pg. 20

About the Author
PETER ENGLUND, a historian and journalist, is a member of the Swedish Academy, which chooses the winners of the Nobel Prize. He is the recipient of the August Prize, for the best Swedish book of the year, and the Sela Lagerlof literary prize. He is the author of ten books.