The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

Description

A brilliant and moving novel about one woman’s struggle to preserve an artistic heritage from the horrors and destruction of World War II and the ensuing lifelong memories from this extraordinary experience.

In this extraordinary novel by Debra Dean, the siege of Leningrad by German troops in World War II is echoed by the destructive siege against the mind and memory of an elderly Russian woman Marina.  She was a guide at Leningrads famous Hermitage Museum. In the late autumn of 1941, as the Luftwaffe roared over and around Leningrad, she and her colleagues were set the task of taking the thousands of priceless paintings, sculptures and objects d’art out of the grand galleries of the former Tsarist Palace and storing them safely against the German bombardment.