The Siege Author:Helen Dunmore Leningrad, September 1941, Hitler orders German forces to surround the city at the start of the most dangerous winter in its history. For two pairs of lovers, young Anna and Andrei and Anna's novelist father and actress Marina, the siege becomes a battle for survival. They will soon discover what it is like to be so hungry you boil show leather ... more »to make soup, so cold you burn furniture and books. But this is not just a struggle to exist, it is also a fight to keep the spark of hope alive. The Siege is a brilliantly imagined novel of war and the wounds it inflicts on ordinary people's lives and also a profoundly moving celebration of love, life, and survival.« less
Having just been to St. Petersburg, I was interested in what the citizens of this great and beautiful city endured during WWII. This book was a very nice way to get a true idea of the horrible hardships endured by these people, two million of whom died. The story is all right, but the history is amazing. What a people! If you like a painless way to gather some facts, this is it. There is a good bibliography at the end.