The Siege - Helen Dunmore

How many times have you said you're starving when really you're just a little hungry. I can recall my mother telling me, when I would announce as a child that I was "famished", that I had no idea what starving meant. In her novel "The Siege", Helen Dunmore describes what it is to be truly hungry and the worry that comes from not knowing how you will feed your family. Set during the first winter of the siege of Leningrad, the story centres on Anna, a nursery assistant who lives in a small apartment with her father and her five year old brother, Kolya. With their mother dead and their out of favour playwright father unable to earn a living, ...  Read the complete review

Helen Dunmore is a prolific author of historical novels, a genre I usually prefer to stay well away from. However I was particularly interested in this one because of where it is set, Leningrad in 1941, one of the last historical sieges where a whole city was supposed to be wiped off the map by the Germans. I was dubious at first, thinking this would be a less than pleasurable reading experience, but I was wrong. Anna is the daughter of a Russian poet, mistrusted by the regime and by her neighbours, constantly on guard against appearing less than loyal to the Soviet government. Working in a nursery she also cares for her little brother Kolya, born when she was ...  Read the complete review