Symphony for the City of the Dead - By M.T. Anderson

Location: Russia 

 

Award: YALSA 2016 Finalist 

Leningrad during German siege and forced starvation, among the cannibalized and dying, amidst the bombing and destruction, Shostakovich completed his seven symphonies. In M.T. Anderson’s first nonfiction work, Symphony for the City of the Dead, a tale of Russian suffering and beauty emerges. The World War II menace of Nazi Germany affected the East as well as the West, and in this story, we see the war from the Russian perspective. Anderson tells the story of Shostakovich struggling to write music to inspire the masses, trying to avoid the ire of Stalin, a man well known for his brutality, and to maintain the socialist orthodoxy, where even music is scrutinized for signs of bourgeois sympathies. Anderson embraces the Russian spirit of tragedy and beauty in his tale of soviet art and salvation. Experience the hardships and joys of the Symphony for the City of the Dead.