A review by shoebin
Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson

5.0

5 stars!! a perfect combination of a shostakovich biography, russian history, and musical breakdown. heartbreaking but uplifting, this book does an excellent job at telling the story of an entire nation and time period through just the works of one man. i loved shostakovich before, but this gave me much more depth to his character and his pieces, and i now have such great respect for shostakovich and everyone who lived through stalins reign and world war 2 in the soviet union. i absolutely loved all the pictures that were included, the pace of the story, and the scope of the book. truly an incredible read.