Bookverdict.com

Gr 9 Up—This ambitious and gripping work is narrative nonfiction at its best. Anderson expertly sets the scene of the tumultuous world into which Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906 and traces his development as an artist and a public figure. He also tells the story of the composer's beloved Leningrad, focusing on the creation and legacy of the symphony written in its honor at the height of World War II. In his author's note, Anderson poses an intriguing question:...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Accomplished novelist Anderson presents an ambitious work of nonfiction encompassing the life of composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the early political history of the U.S.S.R., and the nation’s horrific suffering during WWII. Initially inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution, Shostakovich’s music changed as he witnessed friends and family suffer torture, disappearance, and death during Stalin’s Reign of Terror. Alternately denounced and celebrated by Soviet authorities, Shostakovich lived in fear of the NKVD arriving at his door. The book’s centerpiece is his Leningrad Symphony, embraced by audiences and the authorities alike; the varied mo...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

This ambitious, sometimes unwieldy, work encompasses the life of composer Shostakovich, the early political history of the U.S.S.R., and the nation's suff...Log In or Sign Up to Read More