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Loading... The Siege (original 2001; edition 2010)by Helen Dunmore
Work detailsThe Siege by Helen Dunmore (2001)
 Ant.Harrison | Apr 28, 2013 |  Interesting book. Not at all what I expected (romancy book). I did think it a bit too slow. It was a bit of a struggle to keep on reading but overall a good read. (  ) Marlene-NL | Apr 12, 2013 | I found this book completely unremarkable. I've read a lot of fiction about survival during war and this was probably the blandest yet. ( ) palaverofbirds | Mar 29, 2013 | In 1941, the Germans surrounded the city of Leningrad. The history of the horrible struggles of the city's citizens during the years-long siege is told through the story of one family. Such a good book, so very well written, couldn't put it down. (  ) Milda-TX | Nov 12, 2012 | A beautiful but painful story of the siege of Leningrad during WWII. The story of the siege is told by a young woman, who is taking care of her elderly father and her younger brother. The horrors of the siege are told in a very plain and almost distant way, which is very gripping. There are some very strong characters in this book, and little glimmers of hope which keep the story from becoming completely bleak. All in all, I would recommend this book, but be aware that it is not an uplifting read. (  ) SimoneA | Nov 7, 2012 |
The Siege is an agonising read, but also a numbing one. The novel, which narrates the first and worst winter of a siege that lasted from 1941 until 1944, animates the senses in order to feel them shutting down.  [L]anguage that is elegantly, starkly beautiful. . . quieter and more powerful than her earlier work. In limpid and careful prose, with an intermittently choric narrator, Dunmore presents a community in travail. Admirers of Dunmore's thrillers such as Talking to the Dead and With Your Crooked Heart may be disappointed by her decision to wrestle with the raw materials of history. Nevertheless, it is the lasting achievement of The Siege convincingly to narrate a horrifying war story from the point of view of the hearth, not the trenches.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0802139582, Paperback)The Siege is one of those novels that is as redemptive as it is shattering, and they don't come much more shattering than this. The year is 1941, and the good people of Leningrad are squeezed between fear of Stalin's secret police and rumors that the Germans, despite the incredulity of military experts, are rapidly advancing on their great city. When the inevitable happens, 22-year-old Anna, an artist and the sole support for her young brother, invalid father, and the latter's former mistress, learns to survive the devastation and mass starvation that the siege brings. In the worst days of winter, Anna falls in love with a doctor, Andrei, who returns her passion, creating an oasis of emotional privacy within the hell of war. The Siege is expertly anchored in sometimes unbearable details of the assault on Leningrad; the book's sense of place and the author's great skill at pumping immediacy into the cold facts is something to behold. But this is, finally, a novel about extremes of experience, from rampant cruelty to the redemptive power of one person's love. --Tom Keogh(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:12:36 -0400) Leningrad, September 1941: German forces surround the city, imprisoning those who live there. The besieged people of Leningrad face shells, starvation and the Russian winter. (summary from another edition) |
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© Anthony Harrison 2012
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