The Madonnas of Leningrad
By Debra Dean
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060825317, 256pp.)
Publication Date: February 1, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: eBook, Hardcover (February 23, 2006)
Categories: Literary
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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 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. . . .
Debra Dean worked as an actor in New York theater for nearly a decade before opting for the life of a writer and teacher. She and her husband now live in Miami, where she teaches at the University at Miami. She is at work on her second novel.
1. The working of memory is a key theme of this novel. As a young woman, remembering the missing paintings is a deliberate act of survival and homage for Marina. In old age, however, she can no longer control what she remembers or forgets. "More distressing than the loss of words is the way that time contracts and fractures and drops her in unexpected places." How has Dean used the vagaries of Marina's memory to structure the novel? How does the narrative itself mimic the ways in which memory functions?
"Exquisitely crafted and deeply satisfying."
-Oakland Tribune
"[A] poetic novel."
-San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"[A] remarkable first novel about the consolation of memory."
-NPR Nancy Pearl Book Review
"Elegant and poetic, the rare kind of book that you want to keep but you have to share."
-Isabel Allende, New York Times bestselling author of ZORRO
"[A] heartfelt debut."
-New York Times Book Review
".this is a novel that dares to be beautiful - and fully succeeds."
-Daily Mail (London)
The most-recommended book of 2006
-Salt Lake City Tribune
"Spare, elegant language [and] taut emotion...secure for this debut work a spot on library shelves everywhere."
-Library Journal
"Dean writes with passion and compelling drama about a grotesque chapter of World War II."
-People
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