The Long Road Home

The book is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Belarusian writer, participant of the Great Patriotic War Vasily Bykov (1924–2003). After graduating from the infantry school as a junior lieutenant, Bykov fought from the autumn of 1943 until the victorious May of 1945; wounded three times, he carried a fragment in his right hand until the end of his days. In all of the writer's works, there is one constant hero, and it is by no means the author himself, whose invisible presence is felt in one way or another each time. This hero is truth. And to this hero, Bykov remained faithful during the darkest years when he was banned and persecuted "from Moscow to the very outskirts." The memoirs "The Long Road Home" became Vasily Bykov's last book. With his characteristic candor, the author recounts the most vivid episodes of his life and evaluates the socio-political and cultural processes taking place before his eyes. And although autobiographical moments are present to varying degrees in most of Bykov's works, this last book is undoubtedly the most confessional.