De madonna's van Leningrad

by Debra Dean

In het Seattle van nu denkt een aan Alzheimer lijdende Russin terug aan de belegering van Leningrad tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Russia, Art, World War II, War

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Debra Dean is the bestselling author of four critically acclaimed books that have been published in twenty-two languages. Her debut novel, THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a #1 Booksense Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Novel, and an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year. Her newest book is HIDDEN TAPESTRY: JAN YOORS, HIS TWO WIVES, AND THE WAR THAT MADE THEM ONE.

A native of Seattle, Debra lives in Miami and teaches at Florida International University. She loves to talk with book groups. You can find her at https://www.debradean.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/debradeanauthor.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debra Dean - image from her Facebook pages

This is a stunning novel. Marina is a woman in her 80’s about to attend her granddaughter’s wedding near her home in Seattle. Her mind is failing, however, and she is transported back to other times in her life, most particularly to the time when, as a young woman, she worked at The Hermitage. The joy she took in her work there was countered by the horror of remaining while Germans laid siege to Leningrad. It was the most intense period of her life, both horrifying and magical, and it is to this that she returns. The paintings were removed to preserve them from the invaders, but Marina memorizes as many as she can, constructing a “memory palace.” She escapes to her personal palace when pursued by the danger of incoming ordinance, cold, hunger, and, much later, age and dementia. Dean’s depiction of the horrors of a war-time Hermitage is chilling, yet beautiful. It is impressive that this is her first novel. It is a wonder, beautiful in its structure as well as in its imagery. This is a must read.


Published - January 1, 2006

Review first posted - 2009

[Melodie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 with such emotion that the characters became real to me. She loved the book and so did I. During her story telling sessions we shed tears as she walked me through the scenes of Leningrad and the Hermitage Museum during the Nazi siege. Together we were so touched by the strength of the women in the story.

My sister has gone through some difficult times recently and in her search for healing has been considering ways that she can be of service to her community in Alabama. As she finished telling the book to me by reading the last few pages aloud I was so moved. I said to her as she closed the book. "Jane, I think you have found your calling." She tilted her head and gave me a questioning look. "Doing what you've done for me, for the blind or the elderly", I said. Jane's eyes filled with tears as she said, "You're right, I have."

The characters of this incredible story will stay with me and influence how I see and remember the beauty around me. My sisters charitable act of reading and telling this heroic saga will remain in my "memory palace" forever as well.

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartbreaking story of two different battles

War is undoubtedly hell but it is a particularly poignant cruelty when it is waged on civilians - men, women and children alike - as it was during the 900 days of the Nazi's bitter siege of Leningrad in 1941. Marina Anatolyevna Krasnova remembers her time as a young girl in a bitterly cold war torn city in astonishingly vivid detail. A former tour guide of the now renowned Hermitage Museum, she has mentally preserved the details of every room and every painting in the museum in her mind's eye with crystal clarity - a "memory palace" as it were. She remembers her breathless efforts along with the rest of the museum staff to remove the museum's priceless artifacts into safekeeping in the museum cellars to protect them from the relentless pounding of the Luftwaffe bombers. The bittersweet lovemaking with her best friend, Dmitri, is an anchor she desperately clutches to with ever diminishing hopes for a future as his wife when he is shipped out of the city to wage battle against the advancing German army.

Beyond all reasonable expectations in the constricted, difficult world that was wartime Russia, both Marina and Dmitri survive into their old age and THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD also tells the story of now elderly Marina's present day battle with an entirely different enemy - the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. Slowly but inevitably, Marina loses the recent memories of her family, her children, the coming wedding of her grand-daughter and any meaningful sense of where she is and what she is doing.

Debut author Debra Dean has told two magnificent stories that evoke compassion without being maudlin, that convey the meaning and importance of beauty, loyalty, patience, caring and love in our lives and, of course, that demonstrate the futility, horror and destruction that war brings to the world. Despite the very obvious literary and artistic content of the novel, her writing is simple and never pretentious or overbearing:

"Aside from the sirens, it is quiet tonight, no planes yet. But the moon is rising, so they will come. She hates the moon. It is dead, and its flat, dead light draws in Fascist planes like moths. Though she knows her perspective has been poisoned by the war, it is hard to see why poets make such a romantic fuss over an ugly, pockmarked disk."

What adjectives does one apply to THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD? Warm, compelling, compassionate, literary, moving, poetic, evocative and disturbing are just a few of the words that come to mind. It might be a short novel but it is powerful and you won't soon forget it.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I allot the stars I go by my gut feeling, but I do try to be 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 DO like this book! A lot. 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 knows their stuff, they make the paintings come alive. You find out so much more about the painting; a whole other world is revealed. I can count only about 4 or 5 times I have experienced this and it wasn't when I visited the Hermitage! This author did this with the paintings and with the buildings of the Hermitage. It is amazing that the author had not even been in the Hermitage before she wrote the book.

A second important theme of this book is Alzheimer's. My father had Alzheimer's and I think the author portrayed now it affects both the family and the individual with the disease very, very well. Very accurately. How frightening it is for the patient when they are at the stage that they recognize their confusion. How the family members feel when someone very important to you is "no longer there", then doesn't know who you are and then finally just lies there. The beauty of the world around the patient, seen through the eyes of the patient, albeit distorted, is also well depicted. Who cares if it is distorted; it makes the world of the confused patient wonderful?! And is it REALLY distorted - the world is beautiful if we just pay attention and look at it. Some patients react this way to bits of the world around them.

The third theme, which maybe it is only me that sees, is how members of a family often really do not know each other. This is true even in families that discuss everything. SOME things are just not discussed. Somethings are too difficult. Some people just don't feel comfortable exposing themselves, while others will discuss anything and everything too pieces. People are different. Nevertheless, it was this that bothered me about the book. This issue is only very lightly brushed upon. More could have been done with this theme. That is why the book gets three rather than four stars.

I think that as weeks pass I will remember this book as an "I liked it" book. Many people say they want more stars for books. I don't - it all gets too complicated then. Terrible books, OK books, books you liked, books you really liked and just amazing books, these terms are very easy to grasp and all stays nice and simple. That was quite a blab!

I forgot to say - this is a true story. The author didn't build it from scratch, but hey she pulled it all together and made a story of it. Maybe that is why I liked it so much, b/c it was kind of true!

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Madonnas of Leningrad is the debut novel by Debra Dean that I have wanted to read for quite some time. This was not at all what I expected and I must say that I was enthralled with this beautiful book and all of its stunning and poetic imagery. It may be one of my all-time favorites on many different levels. The descriptive passages, particularly that of the beautiful paintings and sculptures throughout the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, as well as the palpable fear, suffering and heartbreaking beauty and sacrifice of the Russian people as Hitler's forces marched toward Leningrad. And like so many, the effects of Alzheimer's disease and dementia has impacted our lives, striking members of our family as well as friends. Debra Dean treats this devastating disease and all of its ravages in a very sensitive and realistic manner throughout this beautiful and gripping novel. Marina, an elderly Russian woman living in America, recalls very little of her husband and children but she is living with her vivid memories forged in 1941 as she prepared for all of the paintings and sculptures in the Hermitage Museum to be packed into crates and moved away for safekeeping during World War II. Anya taught Marina how to create a memory palace of the Hermitage Museum and it is here that such richness is derived throughout this lovely book in many unexpected ways.

"When I was a girl, we made memory palaces to help us memorize for our examinations. You chose an actual place, a palace worked best, but any building with lots of room would do, and then you furnished it with whatever you wished to remember."

"Anya is helping Marina build a memory palace in the museum. . . So each morning, they get up early and the two women make their way slowly though the halls. They add a few more rooms each day, mentally restocking the Hermitage, painting by painting, statue by statue."

"More distressing than the loss of words is the way that time contracts and fractures and drops her in unexpected places."

"She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves."

[Teddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

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. During the siege, Marina memorized every last detail of every painting in the museum, in an effort to keep her own sanity.

Marina isn’t able to hold on the fresh memories but remembers her horrify days during the siege and the paintings in the Hermitage Museum. Dean does a good job comparing the past with the present and describing the breath taking details of the paintings. Though she mentions that Marina’s fiancé, Dmitri, is captured and brought to a German prison camp, Dean too quickly brushed over Marina’s and Dmitri’s reunion in Germany and we never know how Marina ended up in Germany. None the less, this short book packs a big punch and will not disappoint. Debra Dean is a new author with lots of potential; I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

[MichelleCH · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a half-book. A story of an elderly woman who is suffering from Alzheimer's with her husband and children coping the best that they can. I appreciate the author's idea of flashbacks and retained memories, but I felt like I was never in the loop with what was happening. For some of the book I couldn't tell if it was Marina's actual memories or just a telling of her past. Most of the individuals were not fully developed or just unlikable in my opinion.

Being at the bombing of Leningrad and caring for the paintings at the Hermitage Museum, is where Marina's story was at its best. However, many questions are opened up and then never fully developed.

There is a lot of talk about individual paintings in the Museum and their importance to history but then it is never tied back to the story of Marina's escape from Russia, her marriage and her eventual bout with Alzheimer's. Why did she memorize the paintings, did it help bring them back after the war, how did she just happen upon her future husband at a prison camp, what happened to her uncle's children, etc. etc.

Missing too much to enjoy.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Въпреки романтичната нотка, книгата не е за слабосърдечни. Авторката е подходила - рядко
явление сред англоезичните “романтични” писателки!- с необходимата доза уважение, съпричастност и проучвания за блокадата на Ленинград и най-вече за изумителната сбирка на Ермитажа. Всички тези съкровища на човечеството са внимателно опаковани и евакуирани, а 20-годишната Марина изгражда своя “дворец на паметта”, докато си ги представя на опразнените им места, за да оцелее психически през последвалия глад.

Втора сюжетна линия тече 65 години по-късно в САЩ, когато Марина бавно потъва в дебрите на Алцхаймер, а децата и внуците и - всеки потопен в своята си рутина - нямат никаква представа коя и каква всъщност е тя. Поколенческият разрив е добре скициран, както и темата за остаряването, познаването на най-близките и паметта.

Третата сюжетна линия е кратка обиколка из залите на Ермитажа. Красота - дори и без илюстрации…

Първата част беше много силна, но това е един от редките случаи в днешни дни, когато книгата е твърде…кратка. Все едно читателят се запознава с малка част от началото на историята на Марина и Дима, но тъкмо, когато е станало интересно, идва последната страница. Исках да науча повече за Дима. Връзките и събитията са указани, но толкова телеграфно, все едно е анотация, а множество въпроси остават без отговор.

Дори и така си заслужава прочита, но не е подходяща за желаещите леко романтично четиво.

3,5⭐️

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 museum website, as some other reviewer's here did.) The author’s descriptions were magnificent.
-Alzheimer's-I've been caring for my mom who has it. The author gives such an amazing impression of what the inner life of an Alzheimer's patient might be.

My favorite passage, “The slow erosion of self has its compensations. Having forgotten whatever associations might dull her vision, she can look at a leaf and see it for the first time. Though reason suggests it otherwise, she has never seen this green before. It is wondrous. Each day the world is made fresh again, holy and she takes it in, in all its intensity, like a young child.”

One can only hope.

[Clyde · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 the time with the daughter, Helen dwelling on her wasted adulthood of being a wife and mom, now recently divorced at a crossroads in her life. She tries throughout this novel to find out about her mother and father's past, which they both conveniently say nothing to her about. Yes live in denial about the past, yet watch it affect the daughter and her choices. The 80 year old mother gets lost while entranced in one of her memories, which leads to a unique ending.

[Silvanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this awfully dull at times. Not one of my favorites.

[Maudeen Wachsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 marking pages with any scrap of paper I had handy. I see it was tied for #1 Booksense pick for April. A pretty good hallmark of an excellent read.

This is an amazing story of a woman with Alzheimer's disease, so many times described as "the long goodbye" and most notable in the following passage, "She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves."

The only thing a bit off-putting was the naming of an island in the San Juans "Drake" island when there is no such island (when the author uses so many other real places) but I believe it was actually San Juan Island where I have visited many times, most recently last August. That is such a small quibble.

This is such an outstanding book. I only regret I can't afford to buy one to give to everyone I know.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would never have read this book were it not for Roseanne, who is in a Novels about Art bookclub and highly recommended this to me. It features lyrical writing and relates the complex interrelations of aging, family, the siege of Leningrad, and the art of the Hermitage and Alzheimers. It tacks back and forth between the main character Marina's memories of 1941 Leningrad, scenes of contemporary Seattle and short literary portraits of great paintings that were housed at the Hermitage. I wouldn't have picked this book up because I rarely read what might be called "women's fiction" that typically gets read almost exclusively in women's book clubs. Oh, I loved me some Anne Tyler and Bobbie Ann Mason, and so on, from time to time. But in considering this I only skimmed a couple recent reviews, but one reviewer calls this a "mom" book, disparagingly. Ouch. But I decided to give it a try. I once visited Leningrad, I miss my mom, and I am aging myself, at 62, worried as most of us do at this age about the threat of dementia and memory loss. And I like art. It wasn't such a stretch for me to read it!

Though men do make their way into the story, of course, this novel showcases Marina, who was a docent at Leningrad's amazing Hermitage (art museum) in 1941, who survived the siege and now, 80, and mentally "in decline," has the beginnings of Alzheimer's, living in Seattle with husband Dmitri. One of the principal characteristics of Alzheimer's, as we know, is the increasing loss of memory. But when she was a docent, as the Germans advanced, she was part of the team that quickly removed the priceless artwork from their frames and put them carefully on trains to Moscow, thousands upon thousands of art works. And in the process of her job, over all the years and especially as the art left the museum, Marina memorized as much as she could of the artwork from the Hermitage in its every detail, kept in what she calls her "memory palaces." And in her old age, when details of yesterday escape her and she can't think of the language she knew yesterday, she has these very specific memories of paintings still in her head, in her memory, that have sustained her always, then, as people hundreds of thousands of people died from mostly starvation or literally froze to death, and now, as she loses her mind, her self.

In this lovely and affecting novel art is memory and art is solace. It helps to make passionate meaning in life, even in the deepest despair. Despair happens on a grand political scale in Leningrad, of course, and also for her on a very small scale as she loses family and friends, and again on another small, intimate scale with her Alzheimer's, but in both sites of devastation, art shapes her vision, and helps her make meaning.

In the fall of 1941 the Germans approached Leningrad and lay siege on it for 900 days, mostly destroying a stunningly beautiful city. I was there with a student group of writers on Easter Sunday, 1992, attending an Easter service in a massive and gorgeous Greek Orthodox Cathedral there with believers--many of them as I recall old women--who had not been able to openly worship for decades. It was almost overwhelming to be there, in my growing agnosticism. Such faith! We took a tour of the amazingly beautiful city, we visited the Piskariovskoye Cemetery where something like 420,000 bodies are buried in 186 mass graves. I read the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, who memorialized her city forever in her anguished, stunning verse. I wrote some of my own poetry of the experience. I might not have read this book had I not been there to have this siege come alive for me by being there. The book makes starvation and cold and sacrifice real for readers. Some of Marina's friends and families starve around her. I brought these brief memories to the book and they enriched my reading and appreciation of the book, of course.

I like the way memory weaves it's way in this book, and the sustaining memory of art, and beauty, in particular. I like the lyrical pages describing the paintings as Marina remembers them. I like how the artistic vision of the great art works shape her own appreciation of beauty, even in her decline.

I loved Marina, who is the passionate center of this book, and her husband Dmitri, whom we get to know less well. I feel like I know much less her daughter Helen, our close secondary character. Yes, it's a mother-daughter book! We tack back and forth from present day Seattle to 1940s Leningrad, and in the way of memory--the past is never dead; it's never even past, Faulkner made clear--the art and misery of Leningrad are always with Marina. But one thing I like about Helen is the way she begins sketching her mother near the end. It's another kind of sense-making, art-making, of course. I had been thinking of this book as a solid 3 rating in the middle of the book in large part because I don't care about Helen and her American kids and their lives nearly as much, but the book sings throughout in many places, and especially as we move to the end. The last third of the book is often pretty magical.

One pretty incredible scene is Marina returning to give a tour of the Hermitage before the paintings are yet returned, asking her young patrons to see with her what she describes in each empty frame. Sometimes they even imagine details they literally can't see themselves. Moving? You bet. There are scenes of such power and grace it is hard to realize that this is a first novel, written by former actor Dean. Lovely book.

[Деница Райкова]

Дебра Дийн - "Мадоните на Ленинград", изд. "Сиела" 2023, прев. Марианна Панова

Дочетох я тази сутрин, правих куп други неща след това, а тази книга още не иска да излезе от мислите ми. И предполагам, че ще остане там още дълго... а после, когато си мисля, че вече трайно е отстъпила място на други мисли и спомени, пак ще се връща, за да ми напомни за себе си.
За основа на сюжета на тази книга е използван един от може би най-известните периоди от Втората световна война - близо тригодишната обсада на Ленинград. Ще бъда напълно честна пред себе си и ще призная, че това по-скоро беше причина да се питам дали искам да чета тази книга. Защото винаги ми се струва, че е рисковано да вземеш за основа на художествено произведение толкова известни събития, оставили траен отпечатък в историята.
Това, което "натежа" в полза на решението ми да прочета книгата обаче, беше друга част от историята - за спасяването на картините от Ермитажа. Може би твърде малко съм се интересувала, може би съм попаднала някъде някога на това, но не е останало в съзнанието ми като факт. Тук обаче, в тази книга, която разказва паралелно две истории - минала и съвременна - в "старата" част от историята това е основен мотив. И бях изумена. Защото е описана - може би не твърде подробно, както вероятно би била в една документална книга, но все пак достатъчно подробно и ясно като за художествено произведение - цялата подготовка и буквално борба за спасяването на произведенията, съхранявани там. И това, в съчетание с описанието на жестоките преживявания по време на блокадата, цялата тази смърт, целият този глад и безнадеждност, допринасят за една изключително въздействаща история. Нарочно не казвам "разтърсваща" - тази дума вече е клише. Лично за мен, това беше история, която ме остави вцепенена и безмълвна. Не знам как да нарека ситуация, в която хора на ръба на силите и разума си, със съзнанието, че утре може и да ги няма, се борят не само самите те да оцелеят физически, а и да спасят всички тези произведения на изкуството.
Както вече стана дума, сюжетните линии в книгата са две - историческа и съвременна. И в двете повествованието се води в сегашно историческо време, като историческата линия представя живота на младата тогава Марина. Възхищавах се на тази жена - и останалите като нея, всяко нейно премеждие ме изправяше на нокти, и нямах търпение да продължа.
Съвременната сюжетна линия, както обикновено при подобни книги, е по-слаба. Трябва да призная, че доста неща в нея ме смутиха - поведението на Хелън спрямо Марина, отказът да узнае повече за нейното минало, недоверието към това, което Марина се опитва да разкаже, отказът на Хелън да разбере какво е важно за Марина, склонността да смята почти всичко, казано от нея, като "глупави старчески приказки". Страниците към края бяха изпълнени с напрежение и, да си призная, не очаквах добър завършек.
Книгата е много увлекателна и добре написана. Освен всичко останало, това е история за паметта и съхранението, за силата на духа и умението да оцеляваш. Беше ми много интересно споменаването на "двореца на паметта" - вече прочетох някои материали по въпроса и смятам да проуча по-подробно техниката.
В книгата се споменават множество картини, съхранявани в Ермитажа и ще се опитам да открия поне техни репродукции, макар и без това да са твърде подробно описани.
Романът ми хареса много и го нареждам сред най-въздействащите книги, които прочетох до този момент през годината. За мен това не е книга, която се чете бързо, но пък всяка дума си заслужава.
И се радвам, че се "срещнах" с тази книга.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I was in the right place and the right frame of mind for this story. It started off a little slow for me, but the war time story in Leningrad and the paintings and art in the museum, and the characters especially, were so real. I spent hours Googling the paintings that were described. The present story of the same elderly woman with memory issues was sad and haunting. A well done story and definitely worth reading.

[Connie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how The Madonnas of Leningrad looked at memory in so many different ways. Marina is an older woman caught in the tangle of Alzheimer's Disease. She's intelligent and tries to compensated, but has problems with her short-term memory. Her mind goes back to her experiences in 1941 during the Siege of Leningrad.

Marina was working as a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum when the German army was getting close to Leningrad during World War II. The museum staff removed the paintings on the walls and sent them by train to a secret hiding place. But the frames were left on the walls. To stay calm during the bombings and to distract her mind from her hunger during the siege, Marina and a friend would spend time committing the missing paintings to memory. They called it their "memory palace". Remembering the details of the paintings was also a way of paying tribute to the great art of the Hermitage. Marina had a special love for the many representations of the Madonna that used to hang on the Hermitage's walls.

Marina never told her children the details of the winter of starvation and death in Leningrad. The German army had cut off the supply of food. But now her daughter understands why her mother always made her finish the food on her plate, even when she was no longer hungry. Her children try to piece together the experiences of what their mother had endured in 1941.

The "memory palace" of the walls of the Hermitage is the place that Marina unconsciously returns to as her short-term memory fades. She again takes comfort in the beauty of art in order to survive. This is highly recommended, especially for readers who enjoy historical fiction and art.

Photos of the paintings of the Madonnas and other works of art described in the book:
http://kingmadonnasofleningrad.weebly...

Here's a review of a non-fiction book about the Siege of Leningrad that I recently read:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Madonnas of Leningrad

I enjoyed this book so much, especially the vivid descriptions of the priceless works of art located in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at the time of World War II. The author brings these paintings to life; although you can imagine them perfectly well, I became interested enough to google each painting and study it as I read Debra Dean’s description.

Through Dean’s main character, Marina, we learn so much about the siege of Leningrad by the German army and its impact on the population of mostly women and some children left in the city and hunkered down against the constant bombing. Marina works in the Hermitage and shelters there in the basement, thus her intimate knowledge of the priceless works of art displayed there before the war. Woven into the Leningrad saga is another poignant tale, also about Marina, but fast-forwarded and this time set in the United States where she and her husband immigrated after the war. Now we find Marina suffering from dementia and we see the impact her illness has on Dmitri, her husband, and their two grown children. Here, too, Dean has done a masterful job of showing us that murky world through Marina’s eyes. Because we have learned about her earlier life in the Hermitage and Leningrad, we understand better than Marina’s family how her recollection of the past causes some of her confusion and informs her decision processes.

This book is beautifully written, with powerfully descriptive prose that brings important themes to life: the awful suffering on so many levels caused by wartime, the impact of dementia on its victim and loved ones, and especially the ability of art to enrich our lives through the generations.

[Mary Etta · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 access to food and comfort in comparison to the characters.

As the Hermitage workers remove all the art from the walls for hidden storage, for they don't know how long, Marina learns to commit to memory every detail of most of the paintings so they will know where to re-install them. She then finds an unique value in her recollections that bring some relief to the soldiers who arrive at the museum.

A really nice ending. An example of what can be noted if one really looks.

[Wendy Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

an enjoyable read

well researched. Explores the siege of Leningrad during WW2. It is a beautifully written and engaging novel which includes vivid descriptions of the Hermitage.

[Ms.pegasus · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 LENINGRAD, so central are the paintings to the emotional appeal of the story. Through Marina's eyes, we see an introspective Madonna by Simone Martini, the almost adolescent wonderment of da Vinci's Benois Madonna, and the ripe forms and rippling surfaces of a Madonna by Crannach the Elder. Marina's memories form a sensual tour of the Hermitage's paintings. My advice – make a list of all the paintings in Marina's “Memory Palace.” Then go back and look up the actual paintings. It is in these moments that Marina will seem most real.

The story drifts between World War II and the present-day, suggesting the mental drift Marina suffers due to progressing Alzheimer's Disease. It also points out the rich and private lives we live apart from our families – spouses, siblings, and even children. The parts of the book that soar are the dream-like memories. By night the blimps in the sky “swim like enormous white whales through a dark sea. She is swimming with the whales.” This lyricism contrasts with the horror and deprivation endured by the starving inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. Unfortunately, the present-day segments of the story, while poignant, feel flat compared to the richness of the “Memory Palace.” Read this book if you love art history.

[Robert Strandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 without patrons and paintings, simply to keep the spirits alive: theirs and the paintings'. At night some would sit on the rooftops and watch the flashes of bombs and fires - waiting for their turn to come. It's a bit like Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" where individuals memorize and recite books that were burned. It's a lovely tribute to the power of art.

[Aykut Kısa · Rating 2 out of 5]

İsmi çok etkileyici ama kurgusu için aynı şeyi söyleyemeyeceğim. İki düzlemde gelişen bir zaman kurgusu var kitabın. Biri Marina karakterinin 2.Dünya Savaşı yıllarında Rusya’daki Ermitaj Müzesindeki yaşamı ve savaşın getirdiği koşullar. Diğer düzlem ise Marina’nın yaşlılığı ve alzheimer hastalığı. Aslında ilgi çekici olabilecek bir hikayeye sahip gibi geliyor insana. Ama yazarın anlatımı çok yavan. Karakterlerin bir derinliği yok. Sayfalarca anlatılan ama bir sonuca bağlanmayan karakterler var. Keza hikayede çok bir yere bağlanmadı sonunda. Ayrıca uzuuuuuuuun şekilde anlatılan Ermitaj Müzesi ve oradaki sanat eserleri yer yer sıkıcı oldu.
Bana öyle geliyor ki yazar afilli cümleler kurayım, zaten 2.Dünya Savaşı temasıda var buradan yürürüm demiş. Ama olmamış hocam.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 stars - English Ebook

A story about vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city.

As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return.

As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind, a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more.

Because I had been to St. Petersburg and the Hermitage, and because I watched a close relative literally lose herself to dementia, this book spoke to me in a very deep way.

I understood utterly when on the eve of a family wedding and asked whether she was ready for the big day the next day, Marina replies, “Tomorrow comes, ready or not,” and you know she is doing her best to cover up that she has no memory of the coming event but invents a response sure to please and not offend. And that is how it works at least in the beginning before aphasia sets in.

Marina gets lost trying to find a bathroom. She is leaving this life but what stays real in her imagination are the splendid portraits of the madonnas which hung in the great museum in what was then Leningrad. She cannot remember a single detail about today, but she knows the location and colors of, say, Raphael’s Conestible and the Holy Family.

I found myself accessing Wikipedia so I could see what Marina could see in her mind’s eye. When the nearly 400 rooms in the museum are empty because the treasures are hidden to protect them from destruction or capture, Marina can guide a person through the spaces remembering details of what once was there.

We may not like the czars and their pograms, but it is hard not to like the vast and splendid collection of paintings held in their Treasure House.

Empty frames on the wall, musea in the mind and hope. That is whaf you find in this novel.

[Maggie Dakin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dean's writing felt really choppy to me– the sporadic time jumps made it difficult to settle into the story. The descriptions of Marina's interaction with art were the strongest sections.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 functioning. I thought this book very creatively (and perhaps accurately) depicted Alzheimers. I would get caught up in the heroine's past, much in the same way she would be caught up, only to be pulled back to present day with no sense of where or who she was. I found this both heartbreaking and very poignant. However, i only assigned the book two stars b/c despite the journey and insight into Alzheimers, i thought the book lacked substance that really created a rich sense of Leningrad/St Petersburg. Give it a read for yourself. I've read other reviews and some readers are rivetted by the depiction of war torn leningrad, others love the story of survival and love.

[Catherine Stirling · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 experience of that seige with incredible detail and humanity.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very moving story about a woman who has Alzheimer's and in the course of her disease, she remembers her earlier life during the Seige of Leningrad. She lived in the Hermitage during the seige and one of the things that she did was memorize the rooms so that she could tell the people about the art that had been removed, basically giving them an imaginary tour. The story compares the fear of the unknown during the course of her disease with uncertainty of living day to day during the seige.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was confusing and lovely at the same time. There were moments where I "got it" and then there were moments where I was utterly confused by what the author was trying to say. The story is about a woman,Marina, who lived in Leningrad during the war and worked and lived in the Hermitage. We see her during the war and then much later in life in America with her husband as she suffers from Alzheimer's. The author's description of the despair of Marina's family at her decline into Alzheimer's, especially with her husband is palatable and wonderfully done. The author also writes beautifully about the Hermitage, the artwork and Marina's experience during the War. However, she has brief chapters that are sprinkled throughout the book that make no sense. They are half a page and seem to be referencing Marina's disease....I didn't get it and for me they added nothing to the book. The author also take scenes from her life as an older woman and tries to illustrate for the reader how Marina's disease affects her and takes her from her present life as an old woman back into her life in Leningrad...it makes for some confusing reading. I also found myself wanting to hear more about the people in the book. Other than Marina and her husband, I felt like there could have been more character development.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on historical fact, this is an original fiction story combining art history, Russian history, and alzheimer's. An elderly dementia grandmother is forgetting everything in the present, including her family, and getting lost in her memories of WWII. She was a docent in the Hermitage, one of Russia's premier museums. When they determined the best way to preserve their art was to hide it from the approaching Germans, Marina made a "memory palace" in her mind to visualize all the missing art on the walls. Now she is confusing past and present and art, unable to separate reality and memory. This is the second book I have read (after Winter of the World) about the horrible conditions the Russians went through in WWII, starving and freezing.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. Very interesting story. She cannot remember her daughter's wedding but she can remember every piece of artwork and where it was in the building and describe every color there was.