Four Steps to Death

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Wilson revisits World War II, a topic he first explored in Flames of the
Tiger, but this time his subject matter is Stalingrad, one of war’s
bloodiest battle sites. Four Steps to Death, whose title is derived from
a Russian marching song, initially appears to be a mystery—the story
begins on December 25, 2004, when Sergei Illyich Andropov, a 70-year-old
police officer, must deal with two cadavers found in a construction site
in Volgograd, the former Stalingrad. From their clothing, Sergei
identifies the remains as casualties of the Great Patriotic War, and
this recognition leads him to recall being a boy of 8 in Stalingrad
during the battle that lasted from Friday, June 18, 1942, through
December 25, 1942.

As in his two U.S. Civil War novels, The Flags of War and Battle Scars,
Wilson skilfully uses multiple narrators to present different
perspectives on the same happening. The battle for Stalingrad is
recounted from both German and Russian viewpoints, with the patriotic
Conrad Zeitsler, 18, and his brother, Josef, 22, both officers in the
Panzer Corps, offering the German side. The Russian view comes via the
young Sergei and the idealistic Vasily Sarayev, 17, a platoon scout in a
Russian infantry regiment and the combat support for a young female
sniper. Four Steps to Death dramatically re-creates the battle’s
bloody horrors, which were intensified by two dictators’
uncompromising egos. A map showing the opposing armies’ positions
introduces each of the book’s seven chronological sections. Highly
recommended.