Every civil war is different in terms of its place, its timing, the number of people involved. What is the same, it's always about people hurting people, about one forcing their will on others, about lost hopes, lost lives, lost generations.
When I was reading We The Living I unintentionally compared it to
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Both books tell personal stories, one of a woman and another one of a man, happening during Russian Civil War of the Twentieth Century. Without comparing literature merits, one can say the books appeal to the human being inside the reader.
We The Living claims its own place among Western readers. As for Russians, while many books mostly unknown inside iron curtain had become public and popular in 1990's, it stayed in the shadow until lately. It was translated and published in Russian, and I suggest it reads better in Russian, Ayn Rand's native language.
Highly recommended,
We the Living (75th Anniversary Deluxe Edition).
