The Madonnas of Leningrad
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The Madonnas of Leningrad

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63  ·  rating details  ·  4,230 ratings  ·  932 reviews

Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories--the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild--yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye.

Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidde

...more
Paperback, 228 pages
Published February 19th 2007 by Harper Perennial (first published March 2006)
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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 7,236)
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Chrissie
When I allot the stars I go by my gut feeling, but I do try to be abot restrictive. When you have just finished a book and think of all the things you liked about it, you tend to give the book too many stars. If you do this, a four or five star book just doesn't mean anything! So this gets three stars.

I DOO like this book! Alot. I liked the wonderful description of the Hermitage and the paintings there. Sometimes when you take a guided tour of a museum and you get a guide who really ...more
Teddy
I reviewed this book for Harper Collins Canada, here's what I said:

The Madonnas of Leningrad is a lyrical and elegant novel about Marina, a young tour guide at the Hermitage Museum, during the siege of Leningrad in World War Two and her loosing battle with Alzheimer’s in present day Seattle. The novel shifts smoothly back and forth from Marina’s battles in Leningrad with starvation and bitter cold and her present day battle with Alzheimer’s, comparing and contrasting the two. Dur...more
Mary Etta
Mary Etta rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Mary Etta by: SLTribune list of recommended 2006 books
Shelves: book-group
August book group.

The story follow the current and past years of an aged woman, Marina, afflicted with Alzheimer's. Her earlier years are set in WWII Russia when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage in Leningrad. Her later years are set in WA state at the time of a grandson's wedding and her visiting daughter's recognition of Marina's current state of health. As I read the Russia years I thought of my reading of "Angela's Ashes" and my feeling of luxury in having ready a...more
Clyde
Clyde rated it 2 of 5 stars
Shelves: fiction
I am not a big fan of "Mom Fiction" and that is the specific sub genre that I would put this book in. The strong point of this work was the style that it was written in. Take an 80 year old Russian immigrant who suffers from Dementia and watch her have flashbacks to her youth at the Hermitage in Leningrad during the siege of 41. This is all happening as her daughter is planning to take her to her nieces wedding. Yes, this is where the mom fiction comes in. The book spends most of t...more
Robert Strandquist
This work of historical fiction hangs in my memory like a painting. Leningrad (St. Petersburg)is under seige by the Nazis and while many fled, several caretakers of the Hermitage take up residence in the basement. Their lives as tour guides transformed the paintings into life companions. Removing them from the walls, they stored these grand works of art in the deep recesses of the Hermitage's underground crypts. The women who cared for these paintings walked the halls and continued the tours wit...more
Elena
Elena rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: book-club-books
I liked all the references to paintings and art in this story. Some of my best memories of school are learning about art and the artists themselves. This story centers on a young woman who works in a museum giving tours and such before the war in Leningrad. During the war, she stays in a shelter beneath the museum and helps move the pieces to safety. Then the story flickers between then and now with her having Alzheimer's Disease. She cannot remember her family but she remembers the war. V...more
Rose
Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars
In Leningrad as a young woman, memories kept Marina alive during the siege and now a memory-eating disease is taking her away. The author paints vivid pictures of the cold, the fright, the hunger of WWII Russia and the cold and frightening illness that is taking her mind now.

This book appealed to me personally, on so many levels.
-My parents born in Ukraine(at that time Russia)and survived the WWII seige of the nazis.
-Art-which I love, (and I also visited the Hermitage...more
Denise
Denise rated it 2 of 5 stars
i was so intrigued by the plot of this book. the setting is both in WWII Leningrad and modern day California. The main character, Marina is a young woman in love in Leningrad (her fiance joins the army) and then as an 80 year old struggling with Alzheimers. I did not get caught up in the depictions of living with the war, which i thought i would. Instead, i was rivetted by the way the author took you back and forth between 1940's and present day, much in the way that Marina's mind was functionin...more
Maudeen Wachsmith
What a magnificent read this was! I am resisting the urge to start reading it again right away only because I have so many on my nightstand that I want to read. But this will be one to be read again sooner than later. I found myself spending so much time looking up the works of art mentioned in the book and the Hermitage Museum website that it took much longer than it should have to read this 228 page book. It is so beautifully written I found myself reading passages over and over again and mark...more
Connie
Connie rated it 4 of 5 stars
This is an interestingly written novel centering around an 80 year old woman with Alzheimer's, who was a docent at the Hermitage museum during the early years of World War 2. The chapters alternate between her present cognizance and what those years of starvation and deprivation were really about, and how the Russians saved most of the famous treasures. A glimpse into Alzheimer's disease and how the past re-emerges into the present with unbelievable accuracy.
Heidi
Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: Christina, Sue, Mary
Such a beautiful book! It's hard to believe that this is the author's first. The characters are lovingly drawn, and the descriptions are so real that it is easy to imagine the paintings and the museum as she describes them.

The story is spiritually satisfying as well. The bookends of Marina's life are so unbearably heartbreaking, but there are moments of salvation. Although Marina claims to have no faith, her obvious love of art - in particular the religious art with its Madonna...more
Rosie
Rosie rated it 3 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what all the accolades are about. Everyone is crowing about what a great first novel this is. Nothing to write home about. The writing is lovely at times, and the premise interesting. But I wouldn't call it a great novel. The characters are flat and don't develop at all. Dean had never even been to the Hermitage, let alone Leningrad (St. Petersburg), before writing this novel. But I suppose it was hard to tell, as she'd done her homework. I met her and heard her do a reading from th...more
Catherine Stirling
This is a gorgeously written book that follows two story lines: first, a young woman working in the Hermitage museum at the time of the seige of Leningrad, and second, that same woman, older and living in the United States, slipping into Alzheimer's. One review said you'll read it first for the compelling story, and you'll read it again to really appreciate the beautiful writing. I totally agree. The descriptions -- particularly those of the artwork -- are spectacular, and she captures the e...more
Melodie Williams
I really didn't read this book. I was having some visual problems which made it impossible for me to read for a time. The Madonnas of Leningrad was our Book club choice for the month of January and it was not available in audio.

I asked my sister Jane, who was staying with me for the holidays if she would read it for me and tell me about it. She loves to read and I thought she would enjoy it.

A beautiful thing happened. My sister told me the story in such detail and ...more
Ms.pegasus
Ms.pegasus rated it 2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for: art lovers
Shelves: fiction, art-history
The paintings in THE HERMITAGE were evacuated shortly before the Siege of Leningrad. Marina commits them to memory (her “Memory Palace”) to sustain her spirit over that three year period. This is how Dean brings these paintings to life for the reader. You will not want to read this book without summoning the actual paintings on your computer screen. They are really the whole point of the book.
One might even say that the advertising term, Borrowed Interest, applies to MADONNAS OF LENING...more
Phyllis
Many thanks to Judy for this. When she wrote that one of the aspects of this book was a case of Alzheimers, I was someone reluctant. As it turns out, this is vital to the book's plot.

I didn't know that this book would fit into my new appreciation for historical fiction as well as my fascination with fine art. I think I had read/heard once upon a time about the efforts to save the art of the Hermitage, but the Madonnas truly makes these efforts come to life. While suffering, hunger, ...more
Debbie
Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars
Marina doesn’t recognize her daughter but can picture clearly the residents of the Hermitage museum during 1941 as Hitler marched on Russia, she can’t comprehend that the woman standing before her is her granddaughter and yet she can see the faces of her cousins as they board the busses leaving Leningrad, can still feel the anguish of their mother and the resolve of their father, she sees before her a spread of food and thinks it’s a dream because she remembers like yesterday the starvation of a...more
Steve Lindahl
I had an interesting conversation recently with a resident of a retirement village where I held a reading and discussion of my book, Motherless Soul. She spoke of the memories of her youth and how those recollections became clearer as she aged. She called this fact a “gift.”

The Madonnas of Leningrad is about this “gift.” Marina, a woman suffering with dementia, is getting ready for a trip to her granddaughter's wedding. But Marina keeps slipping back and forth between her life in...more
Cameling
Debra Dean takes us on a journey in the mind of a woman who's living with rapidly deteriorating Alzheimer's. She can't remember the present, can't recognize her daughter anymore, and doesn't even realize how reliant she is on her husband now for everything. However, her memories of the past are so sharp and detailed, her present surroundings start to fade.

As she fumbles her way around her daughter's visit and her granddaughter's wedding, her memories of the past introduce her to the p...more
Alison Looney
A lovely book that intercuts two stories in one woman's life. The elderly Marina is struggling with Alzheimer's as she prepares for her granddaughter's wedding, and the young Marina is working to evacuate the Hermitage in Leningrad during World War II. The historical story is stronger - how could it not be? Working days at a time to pack trains full of priceless art, the museum employees are trying to save what they can from impending German attacks. Then, once the art is gone, they hunker d...more
Dana
Dana rated it 4 of 5 stars
This is a beautiful story about an elderly woman, Marina who is losing touch with the present due to Alzheimer's and re-living her past.

Marina was a docent in the Hermitage at the time of the Nazis' siege on Leningrad. The staff removed the paintings from the frames for safekeeping. Marina was able to remember every single brushstroke and re-create each painting in her memory. Dean is able to describe these paintings with breath-taking detail. Amid the starvation while the city is unde...more
Jean Marie
This is an amazing book, it's unbelievably heartbreaking in multiple ways. The story is of Marina, a tour guide of Leningrad's (St. Petersburg) Hermitage Museum who during World War II is one of the many who stay at the museum to help pack up the art works for safe travels in hopes of returning them to their empty frames after the war. While the city is bombed and baraded, Marina spends her time trying to remember all the art that was in the museum and focuses on that to get her through the cold...more
Stephanie D. (Misfit Salon)
Heartbreakingly beautiful!

Apparently, Debra Dean was inspired to write The Madonnas of Leningrad because of a true story. During World War II, staff of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) packed up 1.1 millions objects of art and evacuated them. 2,000 of the staff lived in the cellar during the seige of the city by Nazis. One of the staff, a former guide, remembered the places and the details of the painting so well that he would give tours of the empty rooms, desc...more
Judy

I have had this book on my list to read ever since I first heard of it. Then the reading group at Once Upon A Time picked it for our January, 2010 read. It is beautifully written, very moving and because much of the story takes place during the World War II Siege of Leningrad, the starving people ate that "candy" made from book glue just like they did in City of Thieves.

Marina was taken in by her aunt and uncle at the age of 11, after both of her parents were arrested...more
Book Concierge
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Barbara VA
A well crafted book by a first time author.

This is a story that is told in flashbacks from modern day Seattle to WWII Russia.

Marina is a young Hermitage Art guide in Leningrad at the beginning of WWII. She lives with her family (Intellligent Uncle, housewife aunt and 2 children, because she has already lost her own parents to the Party) the winter the Germans are heading towards the city. To protect the art in the Hermitage, it is all crated and removed and the workers ...more
Bridget
Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2009-reads
I have had this book for a few years, having won it in a blog contest from Wendy at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. Occasionally, I would think about reading it, but never felt "in the mood," until recently.

The main character, Marina, is an elderly Russian woman, living in America, and suffering from Alzheimers. Her husband is devoted to her, but he is also elderly, and not always able to keep up with her. Her grown children are anxious for their parents to move to a care fa...more
Tabi34
Tabi34 rated it 3 of 5 stars
The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (P.S.) by De..., 20 days ago

I picked up this book because the author was new and I've been to the Hermitage. While Dean tackles a difficult style - I found this book hard to read. The opening was confusing - I had no idea what was going on. I forced myself to continue to read, but the flashbacks/memories were much like a person with Alzheimer's disjointed and hard to follow.
Marina has flashbacks to WWII and the seige of Leningrad - which I f...more
Tanya/dog eared copy
The book is about a woman, in the present who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Her short term memory is shot, but her long term memory, specifically relating to the time she was a docent at the Hermitage (and when she was sheltered there during The Siege of Leningrad,) is still sharp. The author does a great job of describing what someone with Alzheimer's might be going through and; the story has it's moments of triumph and poignancy. It's similar to WATER FOR ELEPHANTS (by Sara Gruen) and...more
Barbara L.
I was afraid this book might be a bit "chick lit-ish" for me, but I ended up loving it. Marina is an elderly woman in America struggling with the effects of Alzheimer's disease. While she has difficulty recalling people and events in the present time, her recollection of her life in Russia, during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, is crystal clear. While I had previously known that the Soviet Union fought against the Nazis during WWII, the description of the heroic work done to save the ...more
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Russian history and a love story all in one 1 33 May 05, 2007 11:06am  
Russian history and a love story all in one 1 11 May 05, 2007 11:06am  
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Debra Deans bestselling debut novel, The Madonnas Of Leningrad, was translated into more than a dozen languages and received wide critical acclaim, including being selected as a New York Times Editors Choice, a Borders Original Voice, a #1 Booksense Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Novel, and a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association. A collection of short stories titled Confessions O...more
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Confessions of a Falling Woman: And Other Stories Palast der Erinnerungen Madonny Leningradu Le madonne dell'Ermitage

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