---
product_id: 1697272
title: "An Armenian Sketchbook"
price: "Rp903029"
currency: IDR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 11
url: https://www.desertcart.id/products/1697272-an-armenian-sketchbook
store_origin: ID
region: Indonesia
---

# Vibrant cover design 200+ pages High-quality paper An Armenian Sketchbook

**Price:** Rp903029
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Summary

> 🎨 Sketch Your Story, One Page at a Time!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** An Armenian Sketchbook
- **How much does it cost?** Rp903029 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.id](https://www.desertcart.id/products/1697272-an-armenian-sketchbook)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Timeless Design:** A classic that stands out on any shelf.
- • **Inspire & Reflect:** A canvas for your thoughts and sketches.
- • **Durable & Reliable:** Crafted to withstand your artistic journey.
- • **Cultural Connection:** Dive into Armenian heritage through art.
- • **Unleash Your Creativity:** Perfect for artists and thinkers alike!

## Overview

The Armenian Sketchbook is a beautifully crafted collection of over 200 pages, designed with high-quality paper and a vibrant cover, making it the ideal companion for artists and writers looking to capture their thoughts and creativity while celebrating Armenian culture.

## Description

desertcart.com: An Armenian Sketchbook (New York Review Books Classics): 9781590176184: Grossman, Vasily, Chandler, Robert, Chandler, Elizabeth, Chandler, Robert, Bit-Yunan, Yury: Books

Review: A Rare Gem - Vasily Semenovich Grossman is best know for _Life and Fate_, a historical novel offering a profound philosophical critique of the Soviet Union. The novel was deemed dangerous and therefore "arrested" by the authorities. Not only was the work itself confiscated but even the typewriters and ribbons on which it was produced were destroyed. _An Armenian Sketchbook_ is an equally profound but sadly lesser-known work. Part travelogue, part memoir, and shot through with historical and philosophical insights, it is a joy to read. Grossman provides hauntingly beautiful descriptions of the Armenian landscape that rival the best work of nature-writers like Anne Dillard (_Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_) or Loren Eiseley (_The Night Country_) and muses on the incredibly tragic histories of peoples like the Jews and the Armenians. A must read. For those with a philosophical bent, it is worth noting that the Lithuanian-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was profoundly influenced by Grossman's work, in particular _Life and Fate_. It was through Levinas that I came to Grossman (cf. _Is It Righteous To Be?: Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas_, ed. Jill Robbins), and in my dissertation I devote an entire chapter to Grossman's impact on Levinas.
Review: A Unique Travel Book - From the Heart of Soviet Russia - Vassily Grossman is relatively unknown in the West, but he's a major voice of Russian literature, continuing in his modernist fashion the humanistic ethos of Tolstoy and Chekov into the maelstrom of Stalinism and the Great Patriotic War (WWII). This sketchbook details a trip into the Southern USSR near the end of Grossman's life. The humor, observation, and powerful prose of this master come clear through the translation to give an insight into an intelligence worth knowing. Like the best travel books, Grossman's Armenian Sketchbook is a document of the human condition more than a tourist guide. The discovery here isn't just the Armenian people, landscape and culture, but of Grossman himself.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,290,693 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #394 in Historical Russia Biographies #1,813 in Russian History (Books) #27,520 in Memoirs (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (75) |
| Dimensions  | 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 1590176189 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1590176184 |
| Item Weight  | 6.4 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 160 pages |
| Publication date  | February 19, 2013 |
| Publisher  | NYRB Classics |

## Images

![An Armenian Sketchbook - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71QN9zJLPWL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Rare Gem
*by A***S on February 8, 2020*

Vasily Semenovich Grossman is best know for _Life and Fate_, a historical novel offering a profound philosophical critique of the Soviet Union. The novel was deemed dangerous and therefore "arrested" by the authorities. Not only was the work itself confiscated but even the typewriters and ribbons on which it was produced were destroyed. _An Armenian Sketchbook_ is an equally profound but sadly lesser-known work. Part travelogue, part memoir, and shot through with historical and philosophical insights, it is a joy to read. Grossman provides hauntingly beautiful descriptions of the Armenian landscape that rival the best work of nature-writers like Anne Dillard (_Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_) or Loren Eiseley (_The Night Country_) and muses on the incredibly tragic histories of peoples like the Jews and the Armenians. A must read. For those with a philosophical bent, it is worth noting that the Lithuanian-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was profoundly influenced by Grossman's work, in particular _Life and Fate_. It was through Levinas that I came to Grossman (cf. _Is It Righteous To Be?: Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas_, ed. Jill Robbins), and in my dissertation I devote an entire chapter to Grossman's impact on Levinas.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Unique Travel Book - From the Heart of Soviet Russia
*by M***H on May 12, 2014*

Vassily Grossman is relatively unknown in the West, but he's a major voice of Russian literature, continuing in his modernist fashion the humanistic ethos of Tolstoy and Chekov into the maelstrom of Stalinism and the Great Patriotic War (WWII). This sketchbook details a trip into the Southern USSR near the end of Grossman's life. The humor, observation, and powerful prose of this master come clear through the translation to give an insight into an intelligence worth knowing. Like the best travel books, Grossman's Armenian Sketchbook is a document of the human condition more than a tourist guide. The discovery here isn't just the Armenian people, landscape and culture, but of Grossman himself.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Armenia - the impressions and meditations, sometimes flights of fancy, of Vasily Grossman
*by R***N on March 11, 2013*

Only recently did Vasily Grossman emerge on my literary radar, no doubt in part due to the publication of his works by New York Review Books. AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK was Grossman's last book, and it is the most recent one from NYRB. I chose it as my introduction to Grossman, possibly as an almost unconscious tribute to Armenian friends and acquaintances from my youth. It may have been an unfortunate choice; I sense that AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK does not reflect Grossman at his best. The genesis of the book stems from the Soviet authorities' decision to suppress Grossman's "Life and Fate". To help replace the money he would have earned from that book, the powers that be tossed him a bone - to translate into Russian a long Armenian war novel. Grossman, however, only knew two words of Armenian. So, someone else was commissioned to work up a literal translation, which Grossman then, using considerable literary license, transformed into a Russian novel. To facilitate the translation and meet the author, Grossman was sent to Armenia for two months in late 1961. He then used the expedition as the basis for a book of his own. NYRB has chosen to entitle it "An Armenian Sketchbook"; a literal translation, however, would be "Good to You", from the Armenian greeting "Barez dzez" that Grossman encountered nearly everywhere. The book does resemble a sketchbook in its loose organization of impressions and vignettes, as opposed to a linear account of Grossman's trip to Armenia. The subjects that catch Grossman's attention and spark his meditations include the capital city of Yerezan, Lake Sevan, an Armenian wedding, the pagan foundations of Armenia's Christianity, and - especially - stone: "The first thing I saw in Armenia was stone; and what I took away when I left was a memory of stone. * * * There is no beginning or end to this stone. There it lies--flat and thick on the ground. There is no escape from it. It is as if countless stonecutters have been at work--thousands, tens of thousands, millions of stonecutters, working day and night for years on end, for centuries, for millennia. * * * The stonecutter was time. This stone is ancient; it has turned black and green from age. What shattered the mighty body of the basalt were the blows struck by long millennia. The mountains disintegrated; time turned out to be stronger than basalt massifs. And now all this no longer seems to be a vast quarry; it is the site of a battle fought between a great stone mountain and the vastness of time. Two monsters clashed on these fields; time was the victor. The mountains are dead, fallen in battle. * * * Time has triumphed; time is invincible." AN ARMENIAN SKETCHBOOK contains passages of literary merit, often more like poetry than prose. There are several extended metaphors that are both striking and insightful. There are some astute observations and some entertaining anecdotes. But there also is a lot of maundering. It certainly appears to be the book of an aging man (Grossman died two years after it was written), whose attention tends to wander. There are stretches in which Grossman natters on about seemingly anything and everything that crosses his mind. Further, I don't particularly care for the tone of the work, which too often borders on being flippant or supercilious (perhaps that is the fault of the translators). There are harangues against nationalism and paeans to brotherhood that, understandable as they may be in the circumstances of the time, come across as overly preachy. While the book can be recommended to those who care deeply about Armenia, my feeling is that it does not make for a good introduction to the work of Vasily Grossman.

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*Product available on Desertcart Indonesia*
*Store origin: ID*
*Last updated: 2026-03-10*