The Madonnas of Leningrad (2006) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Helen: Daughter of Marina and Dimitri, practical, average, unsuspecting of the depth of her own heritage.
• Marina: Tour guide at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad at the outbreak of World War II, who survives incredible tragedies but who also sees miracles even when she never expects to see them.
• Dmitri: Add a description of this character.
• Nadezhda
• Viktor Alekseevich Krasnov
• Andrei
• Olga Markhaeva
• Anya
• Madonna
• Mike
• Mikhail
• Tatiana
• Mama
• Vera
• Mary
• Katie
• Raphael
• Orbeli
• Dima
• Zeus
• Rubens
• Danae
• Papa
• Bubi
• Sergei Pavlovich
• Bacchus

Quotes edit see section history

• “More distressing than the loss of words is the way that time contracts and fractures and drops her in unexpected places”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• You’re unusual. That’s better than popular if you have some courage.”

  Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers

• Until now. She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves.

  Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers

• More distressing than the loss of words is the way that time contracts and fractures and drops her in unexpected places.

  Highlighted by 40 Kindle customers

• No one weeps anymore, or if they do, it is over small things, inconsequential moments that catch them unprepared. What is left that is heartbreaking? Not death: death is ordinary. What is heartbreaking is the sight of a single gull lifting effortlessly from a street lamp. Its wings unfurl like silk scarves against the mauve sky, and Marina hears the rustle of its feathers. What is heartbreaking is that there is still beauty in the world.

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• This slow erosion of self has its compensations. Having forgotten whatever associations might dull her vision, she can look at a leaf and see it as if for the first time. Though reason suggests otherwise, she has never seen this green before. It is wondrous. Each day, the world is made fresh again, holy, and she takes it in, in all its raw intensity, like a young child. She feels something bloom in her chest—joy or grief, eventually they are inseparable. The world is so acutely beautiful, for all its horrors, that she will be sorry to leave it.

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• She knows that her visions are easily explained by exhaustion. By hunger. By all the stresses of living like cattle. But they are also a necessary illusion, a gift.

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• She thinks that somehow it must matter, though, to see the art even if one doesn’t know what it means.

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• The doctor said Marina was in shock, but Helen has always preferred the young man’s explanation. “You had to be there,” he insisted. “She was showing me the world.”

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• Fragonard called this The Stolen Kiss, but the boy is not stealing something from her. It is the moment that is stolen before she is called away.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• It is a terrible thing to have loved ones, people to whom you are shackled by whatever bonds make their pain yours. Although she has no tender feelings for her uncle, her obligation is as strong as love. She recognizes the compact. It is that same sense of duty that has governed his behavior toward her all her life, taking her in and providing for her in spite of his fears. Giving her the larger pieces of bread at every meal, even as he wastes away. Perhaps this is love.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Leningrad
• Urartu
• Moscow
• Russia

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Debra Dean (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.6

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Thrillers › Psychological & Suspense
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary