Svetlana Alexievich

Svetlana Alexievich is the author of War’s Unwomanly Face, a collection of Soviet women’s memories of the Second World War, and Enchanted with Death, which looks at attempted suicides as a result of the downfall of the Soviet Union. Her other books include Voices from Chernobyl, The Last Witnesses: the Book of Unchildlike Stories and most recently Second-hand Time. When ‘Boys in Zinc’ (Granta 34) appeared in a Soviet journal the author received death threats and was forced into hiding. It is extracted from a book on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature.