8 /10 1 Votes8
Country United Kingdom Publication date 2001 Originally published 2001 Genre Historical Fiction | 4/5 Goodreads Language English Pages 293 pp ISBN 0670897183 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Similar Helen Dun books, Guardians of Ga'Hoole books, Fantasy books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Siege is a historical novel by the English writer Helen Dunmore. It is set in Leningrad just before and during the Siege of Leningrad by German forces in World War II.
Contents
Plot
The Siege of Leningrad was one of the key events of the twentieth century. In 1941, Hitler’s armies encircled Leningrad, confidently expecting to crush any resistance and enter the city, but Leningrad held out, in spite of almost unbelievable suffering. This novel focuses on the Levin family and their friends, trapped inside the besieged city. It’s a brilliantly imagined novel about war as experienced by ordinary people, and a profoundly moving celebration of love, life and survival. Shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction The Siege of Leningrad was one of the key events of the twentieth century.
Reception
In The New York Times, Janice P. Nimura described the book as an "epic" and said that the language used was "elegantly, starkly beautiful". John Mulian, in the Guardian Book Club, focusing on the importance of the basic need of sustenance to stay alive in the early days of the siege, says that the book, an "agonizing read", has at its heart "the realism of the senses", particularly that of taste.
The book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2002 and for the 2001 Whitbread Prize.