The Madonnas of Leningrad Debra Dean Hardcover, 228 pages Published 2006 by William Morrow & Company ISBN: 0060825308 (ISBN13: 9780060825300) Debra Dean has written a beautiful, poignant novel that combines a historical viewpoint of a civilian life in Russia during World War II an...
Alzheimer's is a devastating illness. Newer memories disappear, leaving only older and older memories. Marina Buriakova is slipping deeper into its grip as her husband takes her to their granddaughter's wedding. Memories that Marina has suppressed for sixty or more years are coming closer to the sur...
Check out my full review on my blog Guiltless Reading.-----July 30: I just finished it. What the heck did I just read about ... a madwoman who became a saint. A woman who married a eunuch. I oversimplify. Not sure where I stand with this book yet.
The novel is set half in 1941, at the time of the Nazi siege aroung Leningrad, and half in the present. In 1941, Marina was ayoung tourist guide working for the Ermitage museum, accompanying the tourists from room to room. Her love for art and beauty is second only for her love for Dimitrij, a young...
This book was inspired by the life of Xenia, patron saint of St. Petersburg, but is told from the perspective of her (imaginary, I think) cousin. We watch as Xenia falls madly in love and her complete devastation following her husbands death. As Xenia finds solace in giving her belongings for the po...
The main focus of my history degree and religious studies has been focused on Western Europe and the Crusades, so I have never heard of Xenia of St. Petersburg prior to reading The Mirrored World. The story of her life is told by her cousin, Dashenka. It begins with the fire of 1736 in St. Petersbur...
I have a soft spot for saints. Novelists who tackle the life of a saint -- what they might have been really like -- automatically endear themselves to me, and I was drooling with anticipation over this book. Happily, Dean didn't disappoint, and this brisk little novel has the lush extravagance I w...
Expected Publication Date: August 28, 2012The Mirrored World was kindly provided to me by Edelweiss for Harper.Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my blog!The Mirrored World tells the story of the life of Xenia, who later became the mysterious and holy figure St. Xenia of St. Petersburg. The sto...
This was a half-book. A story of an elderly woman who is suffering from Alzheimer's with her husband and children coping the best that they can. I appreciate the author's idea of flashbacks and retained memories, but I felt like I was never in the loop with what was happening. For some of the book I...
The Mirrored World is a very brief novel of St. Xenia of Russia. The narrator is Xenia's cousin, and through eyes we see a young Xenia wed to Colonel Andrey Fyodorovich Petrov. The marriage is a solid one, but tragedy strikes and Xenia's method of coping with it lead her to become a "holy fool", wan...
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