So it seems that only a non-European, in this case an American, was able to write such a synthesis. The drawn picture is terrible seizing. The author succeeds the challenge of giving a comprehensive and accurate view of events that ultimately led fourteen million civilians to death, while giving to see, through poignant stories, the horror and the uniqueness of each shattered lives. It does not come out unscathed from this reading; it is not essential, however.
