by M.T.Anderson
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9100-4
First published 2015
383 pages
Cover illustrations by Kikuo Johnson
Publisher: Candlewick Press
4/5 Stars
A horror story. A real-life horror story. A horror that, for residents, seemed to have no end.
Leningrad was left to starve intentionally during World War 2. This is the longest siege in the history of the world, 872 days. Inhabitants were reduced to eating rugs and wall paper paste
There is too much horror. There were starving people in Leningrad who became zombies, people barely alive who would eat the living.
Dimitri Dimitrievich Shostakovich was born in the city and lived there most of his life. He grew up with its inhabitants, visiting the parks and palaces. He starved there among its inhabitants.
During the war he would man his post as a civilian fire warden, between writing his greatest symphony the 7th dedicated to Leningrad,and looking after his young family.
No-one could stop him writing, no-one could stop him working.
Listen to the 7th symphony.
You can hear the ack-ack of the guns, the swoop of the fighter aircraft, the marching of the army.
Nothing and no-one can make Dimitri stop his work. No-one could stop him from writing his music.
What do you hear?
The Eclectic Book Review 