“I immediately understood that in order to truly capture a historical moment, I needed to write a history of feelings rather than of events.”

Svetlana Alexievich’s newly translated ‘Last Witnesses’ weaves together accounts from Soviets whose childhoods were torn apart by World War II.

An excerpt of Svetlana Alexievich’s “The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II,” translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

We were newlyweds. We still walked around holding hands, even if we were just going to the store. I would say to him, “I love you.” But I didn’t know then how much. I had no idea … We lived in the dormitory of the fire station where he worked. I always knew what was happening—where he was, how he was.