Equal parts beautiful and soul crushing. A novel of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Civil War. Well worth the length. Instead of a Tolstoyian focus on the elite or a Doestoyevsky focus on the petite bourgeois, you get the crushing realism of an agrarian Cossack family and their sprawling set of acquaintances during probably the most jarring and tumultuous events of the last 500 years. Presents a frame for how a man can live through insane events, what matters in life, and the will to persevere even after all your loved ones can be killed. A novel where tbe characters truly grow, where you can understand the mental model of the protagonists, and where sentimentality and nihilism somehow coexist. Find a copy (it's hard to do) and invest the time and effort into it.