- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (30 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141000732
- ISBN-13: 978-0141000732
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 60,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Siege
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The final words of Helen Dunmore's The Siege--"No, I shall not wholly die..."(Alexander Pushkin)--respond to the stark threat with which the novel begins: "Re: The future of Leningrad ... The Führer has decided to have Leningrad wiped from the face of the earth". In this powerful work of fiction, Dunmore writes through her fascination with one of the most remarkable, and painful, episodes in Russian history: the siege of Leningrad through the winter of 1941 during which untold thousands perished of cold and starvation.
The Siege is a type of memorial, a literary document to an experience in which, as Dunmore writes, "being dead is normal". People die in the streets, in their beds; whole families are frozen, "bodies piled up by the Karpovka canal, or outside the cemeteries". What does it take to survive? Dunmore explores that question through the powerful characters--Anna Levin, Kolya (her child-brother) and Andrei (her lover)--who people this novel, conjuring the contest with death that becomes the daily existence of the Leningraders, their belief in a world beyond the siege. The Siege is itself part of that world, stricken by memory and the question of what it means for a novel (and a novelist) to take on the "flesh of all those other Leningraders who died of hunger in silent, frigid rooms". This is part of the wager, and accomplishment, of Dunmore's extraordinary book and confirmation of the extraordinary skill and sensitivity, of her writing. --Vicky Lebeau --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'[She is] one of this country's most accomplished literary talents' Daily Telegraph 'Beautifully fulfils the highest function of a storyteller - to make you wonder what will happen next... electrifying' Sunday Times"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful, unput-downable book - a love story in many senses but, ultimately it's the story of the city of Leningrad in the grip of winter and of starvation - it's a story of survival. Some of the other reviewers have complained that Dunmore doesn't go deep enough into the characters, that they are not fully developed, but I think that is intentional. When every day is a struggle just to live, there is no energy left for emotions and I think the author's sometimes 'matter of fact' prose reflects that very well. (And it still made me cry!!)
I was so absorbed by this book that I felt guilty for eating while I was reading it and when I left the house one night I fully expected there to be snow on the streets...
I was so absorbed by this book that I felt guilty for eating while I was reading it and when I left the house one night I fully expected there to be snow on the streets...
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a beautifully written book this is. It was a treat from start to finish. Although the subject matter is necessarily bleak, the triumph over adversity scenario has never been so terrifyingly real.
Anna, a young woman, her 5 year old brother and her father are trying to survive the Seige of Leningrad in temperatures most of us cannot even imagine, and are unlikely to experience. The Germans are trying to starve the city to death and are succeeding. There is no food. Every step and every expenditure of energy has to be carefully thought out. Every nerve and every fibre of Anna's being are programmed to survive against all odds. Her will to live and keep her brother alive is so strong. The writing makes you feel as if you are there in the apartment with them, so much so that I wept when they found a jar of jam that had been hidden!
This book makes you think about human nature to survive against all odds. A very emotional read, which gave me an insight to a part of WW2 that I hadn't read much about.
Brilliant.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book takes a relatively short period of the siege of Leningrad and carefully documents its effects on the lives of a Russian family. The descriptions of the city and its surrounding countryside are wonderfully evocative, capturing both the beauty pre-war and the terrible destruction that first the Germans, and then the winter and starvation, bring to Leningrad. If I have to make a criticism it would be that the snapshot of the siege ends after it is only a third completed, although it is implied that the worst is over. The next 2 years were also very, very hard and expensive in terms of lives lost. But this remains a study of humanity in the midst of brutality.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Siege
A good tale well told with a very good feel for the horror of living in a police-political state combined with famine in a snow locked northern winter.
Published 12 days ago by SWL Strickland
The Siege of Leningrad
The opening page of this book is a translation of a decree, issued under the direction of Hitler, stating that the city of Leningrad is of no value to the Germans and will be wiped... Read more
Published 25 days ago by DubaiReader
Novel, not history
Helen Dunmore has written a novel which brings to the attention of a wider public the harrowing story of the Nazi siege of Leningrad. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Peter K. Booker
Chilling Reality
We can read the history books in order to learn the facts - about who or what was being besieged, when and why. Read more
Published 1 month ago by R A Lewis
A riveting read
A beautiful, evocative and excellently written book. This is story telling of the highest quality, woven into a real historical setting. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. Adamson
The Siege
Reading the other reviewers, i do not think there is anything more i need to add to Miss Shears comments. Read more
Published 5 months ago by S. Smith
A great read thats not too heavy given the subject
Set during The siege of Leningrad which started towards the end of 1941, the book follows a small family which includes a child as they endure the worst of a Russian winter with no... Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Willis
powerful story
This book was lent to me by my girlfriend. I really connected with the characters, and began to worry about them between reads. Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. C. BROWN
Boring
Boring, too much description, and the use of the present tense throughout is extremely irritating. Like other reviewers I felt no sympathy for the characters, despite having read... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Alison
The Siege
An excellent, very well-written book, especially as it is a novel based on what actually happened during the siege of Leningrad during the second world war. Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Staveley
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