Frustrated with the line between life and literature, Svetlana Alexievich sought a form that fused the two. From interviews, letters, bits of history that History did not want, she complied The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, which I once picked off a library cart while my daughters searched for graphic novels. That's where I learned about the radio operator drowning her own infant. And the "sniper girls" who, as they became more expert at death, found themselves more susceptible to love. And the woman who, among all the atrocities, thought nothing so awful as the neighing of wounded horses ("They're not guilty of anything, they don't answer for human deeds.").
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By serendipity, the author discovers horrifying tales of suffering in the safe space of the library where his kids are looking for something fun to read. He teaches a course for divinity students on the Book of Job and the nature of human suffering, so had a predilection towards this sort of reading. Nonetheless, without the library cart he might never have found this particular book with it's haunting stories.
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