A review by cook_memorial_public_library
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

5.0

Told in a series of flashbacks, this book tells the story of the Marina who was a tour guide at the Hermitage when the Germans surrounded and attacked the city for over three years. Her job then was to remove and memorize where she stored the invaluable Madonna paintings in the lower level of the museum for safekeeping, a dangerous job as bombs fell all around them and food supplies dwindled to nothing. When I visited St. Petersburg, we toured Piskaryov Memorial Cemetery, now a memorial to the 470,000 civilian and 100,000 soldiers, where the victims of the Siege are buried in mass graves. The Madonnas of Leningrad helped me begin to understand what life was like during the three-year long Siege for those who lived through it and made me think about the strength and courage of the Russian people who survived.

--Reviewed by Ellen J.