Why read Letters from the Dead?

Book cover of Letters from the Dead: Last Letters from Soviet Men and Women Who Died Fighting the Nazis (1941-1945)

Book description

From these pages speak out the dead, those who died fighting the Nazi invaders between 1941 and 1945. This is a collection of their letters and documents written in the last minutes of their lives - in a Gestapo cell, a concentration camp or in the heat of battle. Here…

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War
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Why read it?

1 author picked Letters from the Dead as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alexis Peri

Author

If there is one war book that gives me chills, this is it. What do people think on the eve of their execution? How do they confront their own deaths, and what final words do they want to leave behind? I feel overcome every time I read this collection of letters, mostly from civilians who knew they were about to die at the hands of the Nazis.

Some letters are from young girls who had been enslaved, drew pictures, and recalled their birthday parties in their final letters to their parents. Others are from fathers and prisoners of war giving…

From Alexis' list on The best books that grasp the gritty, brutal, and heartrending reality of life in the war-torn Soviet Union.