Picked this up in the RSPCA charity shop in York today.

The Siege of Leningrad was merely one of many shocking human attrocities in the second world war. To say so many hundreds of thousands of people starved to death is a horrible statistic, but it is with personal stories, be they real people or fictional as with this book, that it really hits home how destructive it was. The little boy who is too tired due to hunger to play with his toys. The little baby across the way who starved to death. It's just heartbreaking. And the awful thing is, they go through this hellish winter of starving, some survive, and the book ends with spring coming, people getting a bit to eat because some supplies are getting through, and depressingly, with fewer mouths to feed, there's more to go round... and it ends with this hopeful feeling. But we know that the siege went on for 900 days... another winter coming... It's just horrific.

Amazing book though. As I said, fantastic way to really experience history, and a gripping story in itself. It focuses on Anna, whose father, being a poet and an intellectual, is out of favour with the state, shall we say, whose mother died giving birth to her much younger brother, Kolya, who is now five or six (I forget) who essentially keeps that family together and going, and works so incredibly hard. So sad again as due to life circumstances she had to give up her studies and her own potential to work in a nursery and look after the family.