The Madonnas of Leningrad

Monday, December 10, 2012


The Madonnas of Leningrad
by Debra Dean
★★★☆

Marina works at the Hermitage in Leningrad during World War II. Her fiancé Dmitri leaves to fight at the front in the war, while Marina is trapped in the Russian city during the Siege of Leningrad. She and her aunt and uncle must move into the Hermitage (the art museum seen above) with dozens of others. They are all staving to death, trying only to survive.

The secondary plot deals with Dmitri and Marina’s adult daughter Helen and her struggle with her parents’ declining health. Marina has Alzheimer’s and as she looses her recent memories, those long buried memories from the war come to the surface. The combination of the war story and modern day disconnect between children and their parents works well. Immigrants who survived horrific events during the war don’t often want to rehash their heartbreak, but their children may not understand how their current actions have been formed by their past experiences if they never share them.

I felt like the book was a bit short. There are so many more details that could have been included. I loved learning about the real events that happened during the siege. It’s a fictional story, but the author did some excellent research. I had no idea about this whole part of WWII and I’m still curious about it.

BOTTOM LINE: A short but powerful story of the Siege of Leningrad. Read it if you are interested in learning more about WWII in Russia.

"Hunger has eaten away the veneer of civilization, and people are not themselves."

"Over the years, they have grown together, their flesh and their thoughts twining so closely that he cannot imagine the person he might be apart from her."

3 comments:

Sandy Nawrot said...

I love this part of history, and it is a pretty broad scope. I actually got to hear this author talk about SIBA and she is a fascinating woman. I need to make this one a higher priority.

Nikki Steele said...

Perhaps the author's own internal editor to make sure she didn't go too far and overwhelm the reader with too much information?

I think this whole side to WWII is often overlooked, but so interesting. Dan Carlin on the podcast Hardcore History does an entire 5 part series on the Ostfront, the war between Germany and Russia. It's amazingly good, but hard to listen to just for the very real brutality he relates.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Sandy - That's awesome! My book club picked this one and I'd never heard of the author before. I would definitely read more of her work.

Nikki - That's a great thought and I would much rather an author error on the side of saying too little rather than too much! I'll have to check out that podcast too, it sounds fascinating.