The reviews I had read before starting the book led me to believe this was a tragic love story, but it's not. I didn't see it as a love story, I did, however, consider it a tragic war story. The first part could've been written in two chapters and there are too many characters for my faulty mind to recall. Almost abandoned it twice, but I'm glad I didn't. There's a wonderful twist of events that only Russian writers can imagine and this wonderfully marks the novel towards the end.