Svetlana Alexiyevich

Svetlana Alexiyevich 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. 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 about the war in Afghanistan which has yet to be published in the Soviet Union.