| Uniform title | Onda nätters drömmar. English |
| Variant title |
November nineteen forty-two |
| Portion of title |
Intimate history of the turning point of World War II |
| Variant title |
Intimate history of the turning point of World War 2 |
| Variant title |
Intimate history of the turning point of WWII |
| Contents |
A note to the reader -- Dramatis personae -- November 1-8: plans great and small -- November 9-15: encouraging news -- November 16-22: it can be called the turning point -- November 23-30: this time our side will win -- Epilogue: what happened to them afterwards -- Sources -- Index. |
| Abstract |
At the beginning of November 1942, it looked as if the Axis powers could still win the Second World War; at the end of that month, it was obviously just a matter of time before they would lose. In between were el-Alamein, Guadalcanal, the French North Africa landings, the Japanese retreat in New Guinea and the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. It may have been the most important thirty days of the twentieth century. In this hugely innovative and riveting history, Peter Englund has reduced an epoch-making event to its basic component: the individual experience. Englund's narrative is based solely on what he learned from the writings of soldiers and ordinary citizens alike. They comprise a remarkable, deeply personal resource. In thirty memorable days, among those we meet are: a Soviet infantryman at Stalingrad; an American pilot on Guadalcanal; an Italian truck driver in the North African desert; a partisan in the Belarussian forests; a machine gunner in a British bomber; a twelve-year-old girl in Shanghai; a university student in Paris; a housewife on Long Island; a shipwrecked Chinese sailor; a prisoner in Treblinka; a Korean "comfort woman" in Mandalay; Albert Camus, Vasily Grossman and Vera Brittain--forty characters in all. In addition, we experience the construction and launching of SS James Oglethorpe, a Liberty ship built in Savannah; the fate of U-604, a German submarine; the building of the first nuclear reactor in Chicago; and the making of Casablanca. Not since the publication of the author's last book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, which similarly looked at the First World War, have we had such a mesmerizing work of history" -- Provided by publisher. |
| General note | "This is a Borzoi Book" -- Title page verso. |
| General note | "Originally published in Sweden as Onda nätters drömmar by Natur & Kultur, Stockholm, in 2022" -- Title page verso. |
| General note | This English translation first published by The Bodley Head, London, in 2023. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 443-451) and index. |
| Language | In English, translated from the Swedish. |
| Translation of | Translation of: Englund, Peter, 1957- Onda nätters drömmar. Stockholm : Natur & Kultur, 2022. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Englund, Peter, 1957- November 1942 First American edition. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2023 9781524733322 |
| Genre/form | Personal narratives. |
| Genre/form | Récits personnels. |
| LCCN | 2023001804 |
| ISBN | 9781524733315 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1524733318 9hardcover) |
| ISBN | electronic book |
