Symphony for the City of the Dead Audiobook (Free)

In September of 1941, Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in that which was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history-two and a half years of bombardment and starvation. More than a million residents perished. Survivors recall corpses littering the frozen streets, the relatives from the deceased having neither the means nor the power to bury them. Desperate citizens burned books, home furniture, and floorboards to keep warm; they ate family members dogs and-eventually-even about Symphony for the town of the Dead one another to stay alive.

Trapped between your Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would compose a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens-the Leningrad Symphony. This testament of courage was copied onto microfilm, powered across the Middle East, and flown within the deserts of North Africa to be performed in the United States-where it played a surprising part in conditioning the Grand Alliance against the Axis capabilities.

This is actually the true story of a city under siege: the triumph of bravery and defiance in the face of terrifying odds. It is also a look at the power-and split meaning-of music in beleaguered lives. Symphony for the City of the Deceased is definitely a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably investigated by National Book Award-winning writer M. T. Anderson.