November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II

by Peter Englund, Peter Graves (Translator)

Overview

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524733315
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	96,783
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.80(d)

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 of the Selma Lagerlöf literature prize. He is the author of ten previous books. Englund lives in Uppsala, Sweden.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/04/2023

Swedish historian Englund takes a captivating firsthand look at a pivotal month of WWII by drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of 39 people who lived through it—the same approach he utilized in The Beauty and the Sorrow, his 2012 study of WWI. Over the course of November 1942, the momentum toward victory shifted away from the Axis powers and to the Allies: U.S. troops landed in North Africa; the British defeated the Germans in Egypt; the Soviets trapped the German army in Stalingrad; and the Japanese suffered defeat in Guadalcanal and New Guinea. Englund’s subjects, who document aspects of this turning of the tides, include Sophie Scholl, a German university student leading a secret war against the Nazis; Mun Okchu, an 18-year-old Korean woman forced to work as a sex slave for the Japanese army in Burma; and Adelbert Holl, a German officer embedded behind enemy lines in Russia. There are also such well-known figures as Albert Camus, living outside Lyons, France, while recovering from tuberculosis and finishing his novel The Plague, and Humphrey Bogart, waiting in Hollywood to shoot the new ending of Casablanca as news of U.S. troops in Africa dominates headlines. This gripping and propulsive account, expertly translated by Graves in lyrical prose, recreates the daily uncertainty of war as experienced by regular people with limited information and few resources. It’s a monumental work of history. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Swedish historian Englund takes a captivating firsthand look at a pivotal month of WWII by drawing on the diaries, letters, and memoirs of 39 people who lived through it...This gripping and propulsive account, expertly translated by Graves in lyrical prose, recreates the daily uncertainty of war as experienced by regular people with limited information and few resources. It’s a monumental work of history." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An astonishing achievement." —Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad

"This engrossing book drops us—in medias res—into a brief period crowded with terrible events, [the] narrative woven from firsthand accounts of 39 individuals...Mr. Englund’s approach echoes Homer’s 'Iliad,' which tries to understand at once the mayhem of war, the forces that drive it and the feelings its violence leaves behind...A wide-ranging and nimbly moving narrative, offering a personal and panoptic view of one convulsive month.... Mr. Englund’s tour de force casts a long shadow into our present—and its raw voices haunt me still."—Karin Altenberg, The Wall Street Journal

"Absolutely revelatory. A stunning tour de force. So much in here that is truly fresh and new. Englund chronicles the gripping tale of one month that changed everything in WWII, and it is so beautifully written and timeless. Once read, you'll want to return to this again and again." —Damien Lewis, author of Agent Josephine

"[The] format [of November 1942] ensures an extraordinary — and bewildering — range of striking details...As one progresses through these fragments of disparate experiences, it becomes possible to recognize and pick up the threads of the individual lives. Of more importance, the reader has come to a point where picking up the threads no longer matters. In short, we have come to the very place Englund was steering us: an acceptance of the impossibility of making sense of the events...[W]ith a scrupulous and skillful hand [Peter Englund] has created an original panorama of humankind’s most destructive war."—Caroline Alexander, The New York Times Book Review

"Englund's style is novelistic....his wide variety of sources means he achieves his aim of giving a broad picture of total. [November 1942] is a book thoroughly worth reading." —Simon Heffer, The Telegraph

"[Peter Englund] is a student of mankind and womankind, and fulfils that role with considerable success...[offering] many thought-provoking insights...His works gain their impact from the interweaving of experiences between individuals, continents and battlefields. He understands that soldiers at war spend more time digging than killing each other; and that the pursuit of food, and of hope, are universal obsessions...Englund’s book, and his cast of characters, deserve an audience, to increase knowledge not only of this particular war, but also of the stupendous sacrifices and tragedies of all human conflicts"—Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

"Majestic...This is an extraordinary evocation of a pivotal moment in the 20th century. Englund captures not only the gnawing tension, the moments of terror and the flinty endurance but also the fractal complexity of this global conflict. Resonantly written and utterly gripping, this book will stay with you." —Sinclair MacKay, author of Berlin

"Swedish historian [Peter] Englund’s The Beauty and the Sorrow amplified and changed the history of WWI. Now, he applies these same talents to the history of WWII, focusing on a single month...Using present tense, Englund lends immediacy and potency to these extraordinary wartime accounts...This is history seen from beneath—ordinary individuals in wartime, both acting and being acted upon."—Booklist, starred review

"By interweaving the detailed experiences of 40 individuals from all parts of the conflict, Englund presents an extraordinary panorama of this pivotal moment. A haunting narrative imaginatively conceived, brilliantly told." —Julia Boyd, author of Travelers in the Third Reich

"A meticulous chronicle of ordinary people in the extreme circumstances of war."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

10/01/2023

Unlike other histories of World War II, Englund focuses on one critical month, as lived by military members and civilian residents of many nations. His earlier book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, produced this sort of granular treatment for World War I. It is an effective method, as each episode runs less than a page and shifts to another scene happening around the same time. Showcasing the war at this level reveals that even participants in decisive battles seldom realized that the tide of the war was turning. In North Africa, around Stalingrad, on Guadalcanal, and at sea, Axis forces were defeated for the first time. Diary excerpts and Englund's descriptions also recount how the war upended lives. Vera Brittain, Albert Camus, and Vasily Grossman, among the 40 subjects of the book, were swept along. Soldiers, sailors, and aircrew endured and risked much. American civilians, far from battlefields or bombing raids, coped with rationing and blackouts. Englund's extensive footnotes clarify some situations, but readers may find that it distracts from the narratives. VERDICT A kaleidoscope of wartime impressions on four continents and three oceans. Englund has produced a fascinating perspective on one of humanity's most global conflicts.—David R. Conn

Library Journal

This composite history of the crucial turning point in WWII seems designed for an ensemble performance. The narrative is pieced together from the words of dozens of participants--soldiers and civilians--40 in all. The global action shifts from North Africa to the South Pacific, from the battle lines of Stalingrad to an obscure physics lab in Chicago. It's a concept built on parallelism and counterpoint, a concept that might have been effectively carried out by three or more voices. Instead, a single narrator, Mark Bramhall, performs the full narrative and all its diversity of voices. Bramhall's range is limited, and his character voices are often strained and unconvincing D.A.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2023 - AudioFile

2023-08-01
A meticulous chronicle of ordinary people in the extreme circumstances of war.

When looking at the epic sweep of World War II, it is easy to forget that the big picture involves millions of personal experiences. Englund, a member of the Swedish Academy and winner of the August Prize, draws on diaries, journals, memoirs, and records to delve into the lives of those who lived through the war. He covers the gamut from battle-hardened soldiers to home-front civilians, from a concentration-camp inmate to a scientist working on the Manhattan Project. The frame for the narrative is the month of November 1942, which the author sees as the pivotal point in the war. After that, with the tide turning at Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, and in North Africa, it was just a question of time for the Axis countries. This is a massive undertaking, ably translated by Graves, who worked with Englund on a previous book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, which similarly looked at World War I. The tone of this book is unremittingly grim, and some of the most heartrending stories are those of civilians who were swept up by the flood. One of the most painful is that of Mun Okchu, a young Korean woman forced into sex slavery by the Japanese army. Amazingly, she survived the protracted ordeal. Englund deserves admiration for bringing such an impressive body of research together, but the text is sometimes difficult to follow. The narrative, set out chronologically, leaps from one place to another and between characters. With this disjointed structure, readers may struggle to engage fully with the individual stories or remember who is where. Perhaps Englund would have done better to focus on fewer people and narrate their tales more coherently. The book is commendable but not for everyone.

A stark, challenging-to-read picture of the war from the bottom up.

Kirkus Reviews