Europe Central

Winner of the National Book Award for fiction2005

In his new work of fiction, Europe Central, William T. Vollmann turns his eye to the warring authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the twentieth century. The result is a perspective on human actions during wartime.

Vollmann compares and contrasts the moral decisions made by various figures from this period - some famous, some infamous, some unknown. Also explored in this book are the fates of artists and poets ranging from Kathe Kollwitz and Anna Akhmatova to Marina Tsvetaeva and Van Cliburn. A series of stories examine the complex and elusive Societ composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the constant Stalinist assaults upon his work and life.