Cloud Regiment

Today it is difficult to write about war — that very one, the Great Patriotic War. Because so much has already been written and told, because now there are almost no people left who remember it. Writing for teenagers is doubly difficult. It would seem that the modern young generation is interested in entirely different things…
As it turns out, no! It was teenagers who gave this book first place in the all-Russian competition for the best literary work for children and young adults, “Kniguru.” It was among them that this piercing novella found the liveliest response. Complex and ambiguous, it sometimes turns the soul inside out, but also makes one better feel and understand what happened.

“Cloud Regiment” is a modern book about war and its heroes, a book about destinies, duty, and of course the courage to live. A book written within the canons of Russian young adult prose, yet boldly stepping beyond those canons. The absence of “heroics,” the simplicity, understatement, and everydayness of WAR place this book alongside the best works of the 20th century.