Simon Sebag Montefiore's six favorite books

As a historian, Simon Sebag Montefiore's works include Jerusalem: The Biography, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, and Young Stalin, which was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Prize (UK), and Le Grand Prix de Biographie Politique (France). His novels include the critically acclaimed Sashenka and the newly released One Night in Winter.

One of the author's six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:

Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel

This masterpiece tells the story of a bespectacled Jewish journalist who joins the Bolshevik Cossacks as they ride into Poland in 1920, raping, murdering, and pillaging. The book is about war, but it's also about sensuality and Jewishness.

Read about another book on the list.

Also see Simon Sebag Montefiore's five best books about Moscow.

--Marshal Zeringue