Crimea, 1854: residents in the besieged city of Sevastopol look out over a harbour punctured by the masts of scuttled ships, and taunt the French forces that keep them trapped behind defensive walls. So begins Leo Tolstoy's account of nine months of battle and bravery.

Based on his own experiences as an artillery officer in the Crimean War, Tolstoy uses a kaleidoscopic range of narrative techniques to build up a picture of the conflict, wheeling from officer to soldier, cannon to barracks. We visit the crumbling defences and enter the fray with a group of vain officers more preoccupied with social status than with the war itself; and we follow the fates of the Kozeltsov brothers - one jaded and pragmatic, one naïve and hungry for glory, both in their way courageous - in the final battle for the city.

Communicated in prose marked by vivid sensation and profound irony, Tolstoy's questions - about the nature of truth and heroism, and the human price of conflict - are as relevant as ever.