Anatoly Rybakov. Heavy Sand

The love between the protagonists of Anatoly Rybakov's novel, Rachel and Yakov, began on the eve of World War II. For her sake, he moves from Switzerland to the USSR. They will experience the millstones of the 20th century—suffering and hoping, losing loved ones and preparing for even greater losses...
First published during the "stagnation" period and having difficulty passing Soviet censorship, the novel became an event in the literary life of the country.
Rybakov's story of a Jewish family from a southern Russian town, whose measured and dignified life was disrupted by the fascist "new order," revealed the tragedy of the entire Soviet people.