For those who don't know, Alexievich won last year's Pulitzer Prize for books such as "Voices from Chernobyl" and "Zinky Boys", an account of Russia's war in Afghanistan. She writes something close to non-fiction -- heavily edited oral histories of people who have survived disaster and war. The books are incredibly moving, and as well written as any work by Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. You won't waste your time reading her.