The Madonnas of Leningrad

'An unforgettable story of love, survival and the power of imagination in the most tragic circumstances. Elegant and poetic, the rare kind of book that you want to keep but you have to share.' Isabel Allende

'A luminescent debut... "The Madonnas of Leningrad" recalls Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" and deserves similar success. This is a novel that dares to be beautiful and fully succeeds.' Daily Mail

'The real achievement of Dean's novel lies beyond descriptions of Alzheimer's, sensitive and elegantly done though they are...[Dean] has brought the siege of Leningrad to dramatic, desperate life...this breathtaking novel shows that epiphanies can take place anywhere.' Guardian

'A taut and boldly unsentimental tale, Dean's glistening debut plumbs the twin mysteries of memory and the imagination.' Observer

'An extraordinary debut, a deeply lovely novel that evokes with uncommon deftness the terrible, heartbreaking beauty that is life in wartime...Dean's exquisite prose shimmers with a haunting glow, illuminating us to the notion that art itself is perhaps our most necessary nourishment.' Chang-Rae Lee, New York Times Bestselling author of 'Aloft'