The Diary of Lena Mukhina
Lena Mukhina
Translated by Amanda Darragh Love
12 February 2015Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
In May 1941 Lena Mukhina was an ordinary teenage girl, living in Leningrad, worrying about her homework and whether Vova - the boy she liked - liked her. Like a good Soviet schoolgirl, she was also diligently learning German, the language of Russia's Nazi ally. And she was keeping a diary, in which she recorded her hopes and dreams. Then,...
Details
12 February 2015268 pages
9781447269908Imprint: Picador
Reviews
Sixteen-year-old Lena Mukhina's diary is to the Siege of Leningrad what Anne Frank's was to Nazi-occupied Amsterdam ... A must read for young adults and their parents everywhere.Rachel Holmes, author of Eleanor Marx: A Life
Even at the height of the Leningrad Siege, starving and surrounded by death and destruction, Lena Mukhina somehow continued to keep a diary. Her story, though searing, is an inspiration.Robert Service, author of Stalin: A Biography
The Anne Frank of Leningrad ... Almost unbearably moving ... Her suffering is real and terrible. As we read on, we can feel something important sapping out of her. Call it spirit, if you like, or the optimism of youth. But adversity does not strengthen her; it corrodes her. She gets away, but the best of her, we suspect, she has left behind.Marcus Berkmann, Mail on Sunday
Lena's diary, sustained by emotional stamina and driven by daily drama, describes one of the worst civilian horrors of modern wartime.Iain Finlayson, The Times
