Vie et destin

Every day, every hour, you had to fight for the right to be a man...

Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman discovered Vasili Grossman's novel over twenty years ago. For all those years, she's wanted to bring it to the stage. This novel, completed in 1959 and banned from publication, depicts the disaster of the Soviet regime, which its author dares to contrast with the Nazi regime and the extermination of the Jewish people. By interweaving these events, which give the twentieth century its tragic face, Vassili Grossman has written one of the greatest books of this century. He shows us the effects of terror, and above all, the desire for submission that overwhelms the characters, paralyzes them and kills all resistance within them. Servitude is the main leitmotif, the red thread we'll follow from this book-world. In this 21st century, Life and Destiny resonates with an unexpected topicality, that of a Russia that is reviving lies and fear. Grossman helps us to understand what is happening today, right before our eyes.