Vasily Grossman (Author) Vasily Grossman (1905-64) is best known as the author of Life and Fate, rated by many as the greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century.Among his most acclaimed works of fiction are Stalingrad, Life and Fate, Everything Flows and the short stories collected in The Road. A Writer at War collects Grossman¿s notebooks, war diaries, personal correspondence and newspaper articles from his time as a war reporter.Robert Chandler (Translator) Robert Chandler translated Life and Fate nearly 40 years ago, and other works by Vasily Grossman more recently. He has written a short biography of Pushkin and compiled three anthologies of Russian literature for Penguin Classics. He is also the main English translator of Andrey Platonov and Teffi.