A review by merelvanderschoot
Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories by Svetlana Alexiévich, Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

🫶The first dead I saw was a horse… then a woman… that surprised me, my idea was that only men were killed in war. 
🫶Grandma prayed, she asked that my soul come back. 
🫶I had the feeling that it even hurt the earth when they walked. 
🫶Ah my cottage. I was a young girl in it. 
🫶What have you been doing here? … Looking for papa. 
🫶I’ll open the window at night. Give the pages to the wind. 
🫶And where is his? Where is he hiding?
🫶I had forgotten how people sang. 
🫶No wonder they say the Russian people die twice: Once for the motherland, the second time from listening to Gipsy songs. 
🫶If a child is from god, there is no need to teach him, he’ll learn on his own. 
🫶We are the last witnesses. Our time is ending. We must speak… Our words will be the last.