The Story Archive

Europe Central

William T. Vollmann · 2005 CE · Short Story · Modern / American · Contemporary

Paired narratives set in Germany and the Soviet Union between 1914 and 1975 follow figures including Shostakovich, Kathe Kollwitz, General Vlasov and the SS officer Kurt Gerstein. Each is caught between an art or conscience and a state that wants it. Published as a novel, though built from linked stories; it is filed here as Short Story, and the call is a judgment.

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