First published 2002
Twenty-two-year-old Anna Levin scrapes ice from her apartment window and peers into the frozen streets of Leningrad. The Nazis have surrounded the city. Food grows scarcer each day. Anna abandons her dreams of becoming an artist to forage for whatever scraps she can find. Her little brother grows dangerously thin. Their father, a blacklisted writer, weakens in body and spirit. Anna holds the family together through sheer will and resourcefulness. Six hundred thousand will die during this siege, but the Levins refuse to surrender. In their frozen home, two unexpected visitors arrive. A young doctor falls in love with Anna, bringing warmth to her brutal existence. A mysterious woman from the past gives Anna's father one final moment of transcendence. Even as the city starves and freezes, love persists. The human heart endures what seems unendurable.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Leningrad
Period: World War II
440 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Pr
Content warnings: death, war