Listen free for 30 days
-
The Unwomanly Face of War
- Penguin Modern Classics
- Narrated by: Yelena Shmulenson, Julia Emelin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: History, Military
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £23.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Anna Gunin - translator, Arch Tait - translator
- Narrated by: Sasha Alexis, Andrew Byron
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1986 a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky, and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love.
-
The Ticket Collector from Belarus
- An Extraordinary True Story of Britain's Only War Crimes Trial
- By: Mike Anderson, Neil Hanson
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ticket Collector from Belarus tells the remarkable story of two interwoven journeys. Ben-Zion Blustein and Andrei Sawoniuk were childhood companions in 1930s Domachevo, once a holiday and health resort in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then a struggling township in Belarus. During the events which followed its Nazi occupation in 1942, they became the bitterest of enemies. After the war, Ben-Zion made his way to Israel, and ‘Andrusha the bastard’ found work as a London Transport ticket collector.
-
-
Astounding.
- By Sam M. on 28-01-22
-
Last Witnesses
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson, Allen Lewis Rickman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Witnesses, by Svetlana Alexievich, read by Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson and Allen Lewis Rickman. What did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War? In the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich started interviewing people who had experienced war as children, the generation that survived and had to live with the trauma that would forever change the course of the Russian nation.
-
-
A real story about people's lives
- By Anonymous User on 15-08-20
-
When Titans Clashed
- How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
- By: David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on the subject, this new edition maintains the 1995 original's distinction as a crucial volume in the history of World War II and of the Soviet Union and the most informed and compelling perspective on one of the greatest military confrontations of all time.
-
Collapse
- The Fall of the Soviet Union
- By: Vladislav M. Zubok
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
-
-
I'm sure the book is great, but I hate the voice
- By olympian on 28-04-22
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
Great
- By Fergus Lamb on 29-12-18
-
Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Anna Gunin - translator, Arch Tait - translator
- Narrated by: Sasha Alexis, Andrew Byron
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1986 a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky, and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love.
-
The Ticket Collector from Belarus
- An Extraordinary True Story of Britain's Only War Crimes Trial
- By: Mike Anderson, Neil Hanson
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ticket Collector from Belarus tells the remarkable story of two interwoven journeys. Ben-Zion Blustein and Andrei Sawoniuk were childhood companions in 1930s Domachevo, once a holiday and health resort in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then a struggling township in Belarus. During the events which followed its Nazi occupation in 1942, they became the bitterest of enemies. After the war, Ben-Zion made his way to Israel, and ‘Andrusha the bastard’ found work as a London Transport ticket collector.
-
-
Astounding.
- By Sam M. on 28-01-22
-
Last Witnesses
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson, Allen Lewis Rickman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Witnesses, by Svetlana Alexievich, read by Julia Emelin, Yelena Shmulenson and Allen Lewis Rickman. What did it mean to grow up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War? In the late 1970s, Svetlana Alexievich started interviewing people who had experienced war as children, the generation that survived and had to live with the trauma that would forever change the course of the Russian nation.
-
-
A real story about people's lives
- By Anonymous User on 15-08-20
-
When Titans Clashed
- How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
- By: David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on the subject, this new edition maintains the 1995 original's distinction as a crucial volume in the history of World War II and of the Soviet Union and the most informed and compelling perspective on one of the greatest military confrontations of all time.
-
Collapse
- The Fall of the Soviet Union
- By: Vladislav M. Zubok
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
-
-
I'm sure the book is great, but I hate the voice
- By olympian on 28-04-22
-
Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
-
-
Great
- By Fergus Lamb on 29-12-18
-
Tears in the Darkness
- The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath
- By: Michael Norman, Elizabeth Norman
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first four months of 1942, U.S., Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought what was America's first major land battle of World War II, the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the surrender of 76,000 Filipinos and Americans, the single largest defeat in American military history. The defeat, though, was only the beginning, as Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman make dramatically clear in this powerfully original book.
-
-
A should-be required listening..
- By Jackie on 09-02-19
-
The Stasi Poetry Circle
- By: Philip Oltermann
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berlin, 1962. Morale is at rock bottom in East Germany, thrown into chaos by the new Berlin Wall. The Ministry for State Security is hunting for a new weapon in the war against capitalism - and their solution is stranger than fiction. Rather than guns, tanks or bombs, the Stasi resolve to fight the enemy through rhyme and verse, winning the Culture Wars through poetry - and the result is the most bizarre book club in history.
-
Wartime Lies
- By: Louis Begley
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the world slips into the throes of war in 1939, nine-year-old Maciek's once closeted existence outside Warsaw is no more. When Warsaw falls, the orphaned Maciek escapes with his sharp-tongued aunt Tania. Posing as Catholic Poles to hide their Jewish identity, they endure the war together - running, hiding, changing their names, forging documents to secure their temporary lives - as the insistent drum of the Nazi march moves ever closer to them and to their secret wartime lies.
-
Two Rings
- A Story of Love and War
- By: Millie Werber, Eve Keller
- Narrated by: Yelena Shmulenson, Eve Keller
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Trapped in Poland in 1941, like many Jews, Millie Werber went from the Radom Ghetto to slave labor in an armaments factory, survived Auschwitz, and toiled in a second factory until liberation came on April 1, 1945. She faced death many times but lived to marry a good man and fellow survivor. Meanwhile, she concealed a photograph in her closet and carried a secret in her heart.
-
The Whisperers
- Private Life in Stalin's Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 29 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.
-
-
Good listen
- By D MCKAY on 20-02-19
-
Red Road from Stalingrad
- Recollections of a Soviet Infantryman
- By: Mansur Abdulin
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mansur Abdulin fought in the front ranks of the Soviet infantry against the German invaders at Stalingrad, Kursk, and on the banks of the Dnieper. This is his extraordinary story. His vivid firsthand account of a ruthless war on the Eastern Front gives rare insight into the reality of the fighting and into the tactics and mentality of the Red Army's soldiers.
-
-
Excellent details of the Eastern Front barbarity
- By Lee Turner on 24-08-21
-
Our Crime Was Being Jewish
- Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories
- By: Anthony S. Pitch
- Narrated by: Malk Williams, Fenella Fudge
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured.
-
-
The German death camps and the survivors stories.
- By John Lake on 16-12-15
-
The Weaponisation of Everything
- A Field Guide to the New Way of War
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: Mark Galeotti
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hybrid war, grey-zone warfare, unrestricted war: Today, traditional conflict - fought with guns, bombs, and drones - has become too expensive to wage, too unpopular at home, and too difficult to manage. In an age when America threatens Europe with sanctions, and when China spends billions buying influence abroad, the world is heading for a new era of permanent low-level conflict, often unnoticed, undeclared, and unending.
-
Red Famine
- Stalin's War on Ukraine
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The momentous new book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Iron Curtain. In 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the 20th century. With unprecedented authority and detail, Red Famine investigates how this happened, who was responsible and what the consequences were. It is the fullest account yet published of these terrible events.
-
-
Chilling
- By John on 12-08-19
-
William & Rosalie
- A Holocaust Testimony (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Series)
- By: William Schiff, Rosalie Schiff, Craig Hanley
- Narrated by: Michael Fischbein
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1941, newlyweds William and Rosalie Schiff are forcibly separated and sent on their individual odysseys through a surreal maze of hate. Terror in the Krakow ghetto, sadistic SS death games, cruel human medical experiments, eyewitness accounts of brutal murders of men, women, children, and even infants, and the menace of rape in occupied Poland make William & Rosalie an unusually explicit view of the chaos that World War II unleashed on the Jewish people.
-
-
A story that needs telling and hearing.
- By Annie on 27-05-14
-
Speak Memory
- An Autobiography Revisited
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
-
-
Great!
- By Hussain on 13-04-13
-
Stalingrad
- By: Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler - translator
- Narrated by: Elliot Levey, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 37 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini plan the huge offensive on the Eastern Front that will culminate in the greatest battle in human history. Hundreds of miles away, Pyotr Vavilov receives his call-up papers and spends a final night with his wife and children in the hut that is his home. As war approaches, the Shaposhnikov family gathers for a meal: despite her age, Alexandra will soon become a refugee, Tolya will enlist in the reserves, Vera, a Nurse, will fall in love with a wounded pilot and Viktor Shtrum will receive a letter from his doomed mother which will haunt him forever.
-
-
The “War & Peace” of the Twentieth Century
- By Stacy on 22-02-21
Summary
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexeivich, read by Julia Emelin and Yelena Shmulenson.
Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, The Unwomanly Face of War is Svetlana Alexievich's collection of stories from Soviet women who lived through the Second World War: on the front lines, on the home front and in occupied territories. As Alexievich gives voice to women who are absent from official narratives - captains, sergeants, nurses, snipers and pilots - she shows us a new version of the war we're so familiar with, creating an extraordinary alternative history from their private stories.
Published in 1985 in Russia and now available in English for the first time, The Unwomanly Face of War was Alexievich's first book and a huge best seller in the Soviet Union, establishing her as a brilliantly revolutionary writer.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Unwomanly Face of War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- helloitsmefolks
- 11-03-18
Sadness of War
Instead of men writing about war the women of Russia have their say about World War 2 and all its tribulations. Their story would be the same the world over throughout history. Some stories can reduce you to tears, others about bravery and fortitude can show what can be done in the face of overwhelming odds and the brutality of war. A book not for the faint hearted but still worth listening too.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- bella
- 22-04-19
unwomanly face of war
incredibly sad but a story that has to be told.
the author has captured a thousand different experiences
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-01-21
One of the best books I've ever read
I've been with audible 13 months. Have gone through 15 ish books. All ww1 ww2 vietnam. I've got to say this is the most moving book I've ever read. Moved me to tears sometimes. Narrating was fantastic. I have enjoyed it so much I'm going to start to listen to it again. Highly recommend it
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marta
- 03-03-21
Oral history
This is oral history at its finest and the stories are vividly brought to life by the performers. I found it tricky at first to find the right listening environment; I tend to listen while walking or shopping but with The Unwomanly Face of War I really wanted to minimise distraction and give the stories of these women the attention they deserve.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elske76
- 31-01-21
heartwrenching
The stories of the women are heartwrenching but beautiful. Stories of loss and grief, of women who participated in wwII..
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 11-01-21
Excellent - shocking!
Great book, very hard to listen to some parts, shocking to hear what these Russian women went through in the fight against the Nazis! We owe them great gratitude for sharing their stories, and to the author for her work in writing their stories down.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rose
- 01-12-20
the unwomanly face of war
It has it all does this book. itt’s harrowing, fascinating, cruel, kind, vain as only the young can be and yet full of gallows humour as only a book that tells such a story can be at times. it’s not the kind of book you read if you’re feeling low or depressed. it’s a great book if you just want to have a good cry but don’t know how. War is a terrible thing. Everyone knows that and yet it will never stop happening. Everybody deep down knows that too though they have faith that it might some day stop and good luck to those that have such faith.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hayley Hall
- 07-09-20
A wonder exploration of hidden histories.
Loved this. Thought provoking and evokative. I be listening to it again. A new way of bringing home the scale of the conflict.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 24-02-22
Astounding.
After reading books by Max Hastings, Anthony Beevoir, James Holland and the like I finally had a fuller insight into the Soviet mindset and what truly drove those Soviets into how they acted. As I review this today Russia is rolling armed forces into Ukraine, Belarus and Ukraine were so much referred to it gives Putin era politics a far more informed viewpoint. Listen to this and understand what true heroes the Soviet people were and remain today.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Kunde
- 18-02-22
a must read
this account is a multinational treasure, everyone should just sit down and listen. spasiba zensciny
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- JanitaH
- 09-04-18
Terrible and haunting, essential reading
Despite the horrors of war described in this book, I was constantly surprised by the tenderness and love of these women.
3 people found this helpful