And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov (Penguin Modern Classics)

‘A wonderful, unsparing epic … an intimate human story of loss and love’ New Statesman, Books of the Year The epic novel of love, war and revolution from Mikhail Sholokhov, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature An extraordinary Russian masterpiece, And Quiet Flows the Don follows the turbulent fortunes of the Cossack people through peace, war and revolution – among them the proud and rebellious Gregor Melekhov, who struggles to be with the woman he loves as his country is torn apart. Borne of Mikhail Sholokhov’s own early life in the lands of the Cossacks by the river Don, it is a searing portrait of a nation swept up in conflict, with all the tragic choices it brings.