Stepson of the time.(Reconsiderations)(Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate)(Critical essay)

This could be Arthur Koestler apostrophizing the condemned Rubashov in his novel Darkness at Noon (1940):

 
   There is nothing more difficult than to be a 
   stepson of the time; there is no heavier fate 
   than to live in an age that is not your own. 
   Stepsons of the time are easily recognized: in 
   personnel departments, Party district committees, 
   army political sections, editorial offices, 
   and on the street. Time loves only those 
   it has given birth to itself: its own children, it 
   own heroes, it own labourers. Never can it 
   come to love the children of a past age, any 
   more than a woman can love the heroes of a 
   past age, or a stepmother ...