Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist born in Ukraine, is neither a writer nor a poet. However, she won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for her polyphonic writing style and for recording the pain and courage of our generation. Her book, War's Unwomanly Face could not even be published for two years because it was condemned for its "childish Realism" and the "insult" that it throws at all Soviet veterans of World War II. However, after the publication of these unforgettable recordings in both Belarus and Russia, the documentary prose's powerful appeal touched the heart of many people worldwide.

 

Alexievich grew up in a society where life without war could not even be imagined. Most of today's ordinary readers would find difficulty in imagining a world that circles around war, and another book about war may only seem boring and even slightly cliché. However, this book covers war history that no other book delivers. In War's Unwomanly Face, history comes alive through "anonymous witnesses' and veterans' stories." The author describes herself as "a historian who looks into the heart of people," and by telling the real stories of women's war experiences, readers find themselves meekly agreeing to her self-description.

 

The whole book screams out in the voice of women who were at war, who experienced the same war as men, but remember experiences that are completely different from men. Approximately 200 interviews of women's stories of going through war as a "nurse, sniper, machine gunner, anti-aircraft gun commander, and military engineer" all add up to create a language, scent, and color of women's war that is completely different from that of men. For most people who have not experienced war directly, war is considered as only a "tough thing." From this book, readers finally understand that "for female veterans, war is not simply a 'tough thing', but an 'ordinary and normal life'."

 

"Pain" of women who have experienced war at first-hand is the main keyword of this book. As Alexievich believes that "pain is a kind of art" for women, she strongly claims that she should "reveal that women were the ones who advanced towards this road of pain and agony with courage and dignity." Of course, it is almost safe to say that nobody in today's world lives without a single memory of pain. However, once people read these records of war through the eyes of women, they would feel as if they have gone through war themselves. This is the power of the feminine language. It makes empathy easier, and writings more absorbing.

 

Recalling memories of seeing, experiencing, and sometimes even personally performing the worst crimes of mankind can be unimaginably uncomfortable. Even some men find it difficult to ever talk about it to others for their entire life. Some live immersed in the unforgettable memories of human aggression gone to its extreme. However, these women fought through the agonizing times and had the courage to share the scenes of war that they can still vividly picture in their minds. Thanks to them, we readers can now see war from another angle, an angle that has not been shown to the world until now.