The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel [Paperback]

Debra Dean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2007

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. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Russian emigré Marina Buriakov, 82, is preparing for her granddaughter's wedding near Seattle while fighting a losing battle against Alzheimer's. Stuggling to remember whom Katie is marrying (and indeed that there is to be a marriage at all), Marina does remember her youth as a Hermitage Museum docent as the siege of Leningrad began; it is into these memories that she disappears. After frantic packing, the Hermitage's collection is transported to a safe hiding place until the end of the war. The museum staff and their families remain, wintering (all 2,000 of them) in the Hermitage basement to avoid bombs and marauding soldiers. Marina, using the technique of a fellow docent, memorizes favorite Hermitage works; these memories, beautifully interspersed, are especially vibrant. Dean, making her debut, weaves Marina's past and present together effortlessly. The dialogue around Marina's forgetfulness is extremely well done, and the Hermitage material has depth. Although none of the characters emerges particularly vividly (Marina included), memory, the hopes one pins on it and the letting go one must do around it all take on real poignancy, giving the story a satisfying fullness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Her granddaughter's wedding should be a time of happiness for Marina Buriakov. But the Russian emigre's descent into Alzheimer's has her and her family experiencing more anxiety than joy. As the details of her present-day life slip mysteriously away, Marina's recollections of her early years as a docent at the State Hermitage Museum become increasingly vivid. When Leningrad came under siege at the beginning of World War II, museum workers--whose families were provided shelter in the building's basement--stowed away countless treasures, leaving the painting's frames in place as a hopeful symbol of their ultimate return. Amid the chaos, Marina found solace in the creation of a "memory palace," in which she envisioned the brushstroke of every painting and each statue's line and curve. 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." Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060931841
• ISBN-13: 978-0060825317
• ASIN: 0060825316
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Debra Dean's bestselling debut novel, THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD, was a New York Times Editors' Choice, a Borders Original Voice, #1 Booksense Pick, Booklist Top Ten Novel, and an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year. It has been published in seventeen languages. Her collection of short stories, CONFESSIONS OF A FALLING WOMAN, came out two years later to critical acclaim, winning the Paterson Fiction Prize and the Florida Book Award Bronze Medal.

A native of Seattle, Dean worked as an actor in New York and regional theater for nearly a decade before opting for the life of a writer. She met her future husband when they were cast as brother and sister in A.R. Gurney's play The Dining Room. "If I'd had a more successful career as an actor, I'd probably still be doing it because I loved acting."

THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD began as two separate short stories that unexpectedly merged. It then spent several years in a drawer before Dean completed the novel. "In retrospect, I'm very grateful for my circuitous journey, that I wasn't some wunderkind. I like to think I have more compassion now and a perspective that I didn't have when I was younger."

She and her husband now live in Miami, where she teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University. She is at work on a second novel also set in Russia, this time in the eighteenth-century.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art transcends war, March 14, 2006

By 

Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (Hardcover)

As a young woman, Marina worked as a museum guide at the Hermitage in Leningrad. When war broke out and the Germans invaded the city, Marina and her comrades were tasked with removing the museum's priceless treasures and storing them safely away. During the 900 days of siege, the city residents faced devastation, starvation, and cold. The Hermitage's basement became Marina's refuge. The empty picture frames gracing its exhibition halls contained echoes of its former art, providing a distraction that helped Marina survive the horrors of war. Now living in Seattle, Marina is an elderly woman who is sinking into dementia. About to attend her granddaughter's wedding, her past overtakes the present and she is living in a muddled world of war, beauty, and the struggle for survival.

"The Madonnas of Leningrad" is a beautifully written and richly layered debut novel. Author Debra Dean achieves the daunting task of juxtaposing the horrors of war with the timeless beauty of art. She seamlessly interweaves Marina's flashbacks with present-day family activities. The descriptions of the deteriorating living conditions and the slow erosion of hope turning to despair are so realistic that the reader is transported to the besieged city to suffer along with its residents. There are touching scenes of grown children struggling to cope with the infirmities of their aging parents. This is also a story of love between Marina and Dmitri; it's a love that spans the years, from their youthful separation during the war to their golden years, when Dmitri must cope with Marina's declining mental faculties. There is even a touch of humor here and there too, such as when Marina reflects on the official Communist Party verbiage used to describe the bourgeois society depicted in the art masterpieces. With such a wide variety of themes and imagery here, all expertly crafted into a modest-sized story, this book is a must-read.

Eileen Rieback

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An unforgetable story of love, imagination, and survival, February 22, 2006

By 

Evelyn D. Cruze "evwings" (Crescent City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a wonderful first effort by a new voice in fiction. The history and art descriptions are quite factual and I was reminded how much art history I had forgotten and want to now revisit. The illness of Marina reminded me of some issues my own mother had. For example she has stopped cooking because she leaves out ingredients and she tends to leave pots and pans unattended. The way Marina shifts from the present to the past also rang true. I found the descriptions to be vivid enough to picture in my mind the struggles of love and war; imagination and nature. The ending quite surprised me and was so elegantly written it brought me to tears. I would recommend this read to anyone interested in Leningrad during the winter of 1941 or who loves someone with Alzheimer's. I look forward to future reads by Ms Dean. The only thing stopping me from giving this book the five star rating is that it does jump back and forth in time and some readers may be confused by that or not particularly like to read books that do this. I'd like to add that this technique is needed to show how the main character lives and thinks. It is truly a wonderful story and I think if you can get past the tenses changing, you'll enjoy the read.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't this book a Number One Bestseller????, May 6, 2006

By 

Beachreader "BeachReader" (Port Townsend, WA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.