About the book...
Plot Summary...
The
Madonnas of Leningrad is a work of
historical fiction in which a character’s memories of the past both haunt and comfort her in the present day. Eighty year-old, Russian-born Marina and her husband, Dmitri, emigrated to the United States after World War II, and their two grown children believe that their parents are content to have left their memories of the war behind them in Leningrad. Over the course of a long weekend in which the family has gathered to celebrate a wedding, the fact that the wife and mother they love is becoming lost to the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease is evidenced by Marina's increasing inability to separate memories of her past from the reality of her present life. As she struggles to retain a grasp on her current surroundings, Marina relives both the pain of the devastating hardship she endured during the Siege of Leningrad, and the respite she found at the time in the beauty of the art that once filled the museum in which she worked as a tour guide.
As news of Germany's invasion of Russia reaches Leningrad in the fall of 1941, twenty year-old Marina is among a group of individuals working tirelessly to arrange for the secret evacuation of the famed Hermitage Museum's vast art collection to the Ural Mountains to prevent the possibility of it falling into the hands of Hitler's advancing army. As priceless paintings are carefully removed from their frames in room after room of the museum for easier shipment, the frames are left in place as a silent pledge by the workers that the missing masterpieces will someday return to the museum. As the German blockade surrounding the city tightens and daily bombing raids devastate the city, Marina and her family are among a group of 2,000 individuals who take permanent refuge in the deep cellars of the now nearly-empty Hermitage. As the Siege drags on and Marina waits for news of her fiancé, Dmitri, who is off fighting at the front, food supplies and living conditions in the cellar and throughout the entire city of Leningrad deteriorate to horrifying proportions. Hope dwindles as deaths of friends and family members from starvation mount, and the goal of those living in the cellar is simply day-to-day survival.
As Marina weakly wanders the empty rooms of the museum each day, her overwhelming will to survive is reflected in her touching and steadfast determination to preserve her memories of the priceless works of art that once hung there. Marina organizes her memories in a "memory palace," an imaginary building in her mind where room after room is filled with the art she admires -- mental images of which she can visit whenever she chooses. In the face of devastating deprivation and loss, it is her memories of the beauty that once surrounded her that ultimately sustain her. In a heartbreaking twist in her old age, however, we learn that the memories that once proved to be her salvation are now intruding on Marina's current life, interfering with her ability to retain her grasp on the here and now. The Madonnas of Leningrad is a truly moving story about the mystical powers of memory, the will to survive, and the struggle to preserve some semblance of beauty and hope in the midst of utter devastation.
As news of Germany's invasion of Russia reaches Leningrad in the fall of 1941, twenty year-old Marina is among a group of individuals working tirelessly to arrange for the secret evacuation of the famed Hermitage Museum's vast art collection to the Ural Mountains to prevent the possibility of it falling into the hands of Hitler's advancing army. As priceless paintings are carefully removed from their frames in room after room of the museum for easier shipment, the frames are left in place as a silent pledge by the workers that the missing masterpieces will someday return to the museum. As the German blockade surrounding the city tightens and daily bombing raids devastate the city, Marina and her family are among a group of 2,000 individuals who take permanent refuge in the deep cellars of the now nearly-empty Hermitage. As the Siege drags on and Marina waits for news of her fiancé, Dmitri, who is off fighting at the front, food supplies and living conditions in the cellar and throughout the entire city of Leningrad deteriorate to horrifying proportions. Hope dwindles as deaths of friends and family members from starvation mount, and the goal of those living in the cellar is simply day-to-day survival.
As Marina weakly wanders the empty rooms of the museum each day, her overwhelming will to survive is reflected in her touching and steadfast determination to preserve her memories of the priceless works of art that once hung there. Marina organizes her memories in a "memory palace," an imaginary building in her mind where room after room is filled with the art she admires -- mental images of which she can visit whenever she chooses. In the face of devastating deprivation and loss, it is her memories of the beauty that once surrounded her that ultimately sustain her. In a heartbreaking twist in her old age, however, we learn that the memories that once proved to be her salvation are now intruding on Marina's current life, interfering with her ability to retain her grasp on the here and now. The Madonnas of Leningrad is a truly moving story about the mystical powers of memory, the will to survive, and the struggle to preserve some semblance of beauty and hope in the midst of utter devastation.
A word from the author...
Debra Dean describes the message she hopes readers take away from her novel.
Awards...
The Madonnas of Leningrad achieved great success upon its publication in 2006. Honors received included the following:
National Bestseller
#1 Booksense Pick
New York Times Editors Choice
Borders Original Voices Selection
American Library Association Notable Book
Booklist Top 10 First Novels of 2006
National Bestseller
#1 Booksense Pick
New York Times Editors Choice
Borders Original Voices Selection
American Library Association Notable Book
Booklist Top 10 First Novels of 2006
Reviews...
From Library Journal:
...As this first novel by Dean, a Seattle college teacher, opens, Marina is living in the tattered shreds of her memory. Her elusive grasp of the present and her meticulous recollections of a long-supressed past are in delicate opposition. Memory, once her greatest ally, is now her betrayer. Like her adoring museum audiences 60 years earlier, readers will absorb Marina's glorious, lush accounts of classical beauties as she traces them in her mind. Dean eloquently depicts the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and convincingly describes the inner world of the afflicted. Spare, elegant language, taut emotion, and the crystal-clear ring of truth secure for this debut work a spot on library shelves everywhere.
From Booklist:
...Gracefully shifting between the Soviet Union and the contemporary Pacific Northwest, first-time novelist Dean renders a poignant tale about the power of memory. Dean eloquently describes the works of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Raphael, but she is at her best illuminating aging Marina's precarious state of mind: "It is like disappearing for a few moments at a time, like a switch being turned off," she writes. "A short while later, the switch mysteriously flips again."
From BookPage:
...Dean merges past and present in prose that shines like the gilt frames in the Hermitage...This novel of memory and forgetting glows with love and hope.
Other Readers:
Find out what other readers are saying about the book at Amazon.com and Good Reads
...As this first novel by Dean, a Seattle college teacher, opens, Marina is living in the tattered shreds of her memory. Her elusive grasp of the present and her meticulous recollections of a long-supressed past are in delicate opposition. Memory, once her greatest ally, is now her betrayer. Like her adoring museum audiences 60 years earlier, readers will absorb Marina's glorious, lush accounts of classical beauties as she traces them in her mind. Dean eloquently depicts the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and convincingly describes the inner world of the afflicted. Spare, elegant language, taut emotion, and the crystal-clear ring of truth secure for this debut work a spot on library shelves everywhere.
From Booklist:
...Gracefully shifting between the Soviet Union and the contemporary Pacific Northwest, first-time novelist Dean renders a poignant tale about the power of memory. Dean eloquently describes the works of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Raphael, but she is at her best illuminating aging Marina's precarious state of mind: "It is like disappearing for a few moments at a time, like a switch being turned off," she writes. "A short while later, the switch mysteriously flips again."
From BookPage:
...Dean merges past and present in prose that shines like the gilt frames in the Hermitage...This novel of memory and forgetting glows with love and hope.
Other Readers:
Find out what other readers are saying about the book at Amazon.com and Good Reads