Take The Girl From The Hermitage Picturized By Molly Gartland Physical Book

have to start off with this, The part where you read about Mikhail scrapping wallpaper from the corridor wall to boil up the paste for Galina to eat is heartbreaking.
It really brings home how most of us are privileged today, This section really got to me, As a mum to two girls and a softy at heart, it brought tears to my eyes.


The Girl from the Hermitage is beautifully written, The descriptions of things we may see every day are described with care and great attention to detail.
Its really refreshing to read,



Brilliant, Tender. Moving. Strength. Survival are the words I would use to describe this book,

It gave me a perfect insight into Russia during thes and onwards throughout the years and of course life in the Soviet Union.
I havent read much about these times, but after reading this book, Its a part of history I would be interested in finding out more about.
I would highly recommend giving The Girl From The Hermitage a read,

You can read my full review here sitelink com/books/thegi The Girl from the Hermitage is inspired by a picture the author bought when living in Moscow.
She decided to research the history of the artist many years later and this book was born.
Whilst reading the book, I researched the Hermitage Museum and how its collections were sent away during the second world war, for protection.
I found it fascinating that the book was based around a true event and also haunted by how the ordinary people in Russia had to live during the war.
The main characters go hungry and the descriptions of what they ate was heartbreaking,

The book tells the story of Galina from her childhood into being grown up inandand then old age in.
She is an artist like her father and we follow both her and her paintings and her family through the years.


I found it a wonderful book and loved the history that it covered and the picture painted of Russia through the ages.
I'm hoping there will be a second book as the ending suggests it could be possible! Amazing story

Very well written impressive work! It was so interesting to read about Russian history as this is a topic I don't know much about.
 A few of you may know that Ive been struggling with reading lately, But this book finally got me back into it, Hurray! Something different. Historical fiction. The story is split into three parts, The few first pages had me hooked and interested,

It starts off with life during WWthen part two moves onto after the war and finally part three is set on the future.
Its a life story of sorts focusing on a specific few characters, Brilliantly written and the cover is simple yet eye catching, Molly has a brilliant writing style and description for each time period, You can tell alot of research, time and thought have been put into this story,

Some chapters are a little too long for my personal liking but that didnt bother me much as I was really enjoying reading it after my long book slump.
A well deservesld four from me, Highly recommend. If you fancy something a little different this may be for you, Thank you for giving me my reading mojo back! I was most interested in the first section, which described the siege of Leningrad and the terrible living conditions, the girls and other people who lived in the basement of the Hermitage and the painting Mikhail was commissioned to make.
The following sections each take place in the future and introduce new characters, They are interesting in their own ways, too, The opening paragraphs of Part One of this compelling and enthralling story describe Mikhail scraping a strip of yellowing floral wallpaper off the wall, then holding it over a pot on the stove, gently scratching flakes of paste into the hot water to make a thin soup for Galaya Galina, his starving daughter.
He knows this wont be enough nourishment for her but, apart from three tiny cubes of bread, he doesnt have any more to give her.
He then has to venture into the snowy streets to get water, something he must do before it becomes even colder and the bombs begin to fall again.
As he does so, he sees a pile of frozen corpses just outside the entrance to his buildings courtyard, most are blanketed by snow, but his wifes body remains exposed because no fresh snow has fallen since she died.

In spite of his concerns, Mikhail knows that by agreeing to paint the portrait the colonel has commissioned, he and Galaya, along with her friend Vera and Anna her mother, can move into the cellars of the Hermitage, where there is the promise of more food, a school for the girls and is also where his best friend Boris works.
When he arrives at the colonels home he is shocked by the life of affluence and plenty being enjoyed by the colonel and his two young sons.
How can this be right when most of the population of Leningrad is starving Although aware of the risks hes taking, he cannot resist stealing food to share with family and friends at the Hermitage but he lives in fear of the consequences should he be discovered.

Using the spare, elegant prose which would continue to define her brilliant storytelling throughout the novel, I found that within just a few pages the author had immediately evoked not only a vivid portrayal of a father desperate to do whatever he could to save his daughter from starvation including adding a dead rat to the thin wallpaper soup but also of a city under siege and a population prepared to go to any lengths to survive.
I soon felt caught up in their struggles, concerned to know if they would all survive the harsh conditions they were facing and full of

rage about the privations they were facing whilst the colonels home was warm and food was plentiful.
Its not often that I feel so immediately engaged with characters, a feeling of intimate engagement which increased as the story unfolded and made me want to keep on turning the pages.
Even when I wasnt reading, I found myself thinking about them, wondering what was happening to them, always eager to get back to the story to find out.

The subsequent three parts, set in,andare told from Galinas perspective, as she becomes a wife, a mother, a grandmother and greatgrandmother, a teacher of art and a portrait painter.
I dont want to go into any detail about the developing story because its compelling nature is dependent on the gradual unfolding of not only the personal challenges she faces during her life, but also how she is affected by, and adapts to, the dramatic societal and political changes which take place during her journey from childhood to old age.
Although the story is divided into these parts, in moving from one era to the next I didnt experience any sense of dislocation because there were clear threads which linked them together to form a coherent whole.

I loved the many ways in which the author captured the combination of Galinas determined, pragmatic resilience, as she dealt with the many challenges she faced during times of turbulent change, with her feelings of nostalgia for the loss of an old, familiar way of life.
As the central character, her voice was the loudest but, without exception, each of the other characters felt very welldrawn and vivid, with not one of them feeling in any way superfluous to the story.
I enjoyed the many ways in which the intergenerational aspects of the storytelling not only added perspectives other than Galinas on all the changes taking place in society, but also enabled reflections on how past events continued to have an impact on succeeding generations.
Similar reflections emerged through the authors explorations of her characters relationships and the changing nature of love, friendship, loyalty, loss and betrayal.

References to art and painting provide a continuous thread throughout the story, creating colourful, evocative images which, for me, added an almost tangible texture to the storytelling.
Also, the repeated descriptions of how Galina prepared her palette before starting a portrait were so vivid that I could almost believe that, given the right materials, I too could start to paint quite an achievement given my total lack of talent!
The author worked in Moscow fromtoand I think she has used her knowledge and understanding of the countrys history and culture to create a convincingly authentic story, as well as a moving and thoughtprovoking one.
I enjoyed getting to know all her characters and to feeling immersed in another culture and felt a real sense of loss when I finished the book.
Whilst I felt content with the ending, I do find myself wondering what happened next and, as the story ends with Galina pondering how much she should share with her greatgranddaughter about the history behind a portrait she painted in the's, maybe the questions left hanging do provide an opportunity for a sequel I recognise that Galina is now eightythree years old but Im sure she still has plenty insights to share!
With thanks to the publisher and NB for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.


It is December, and eightyearold Galina and her friend Katya are caught in the siege of Leningrad, eating soup made of wallpaper, with the occasional luxury of a dead rat.
Galinas artist father Mikhail has been kept away from the front to help save the treasures of the Hermitage.
Its cellars could now provide a safe haven, provided Mikhail can navigate the perils of a portrait commission from one of Stalins colonels.
Nearlyyears later, Galina herself is a teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute, What ought to be a celebratory weekend at her forest dacha turns sour when she makes an unwelcome discovery.
The painting she embarks upon that day will hold a grim significance for the rest of her life, as the old Soviet Union makes way for the new Russia and Galinas familiar world changes out of all recognition.
Warm, wise and utterly enthralling, Molly Gartlands debut novel guides us from the old communist world, with its obvious terrors and its more surprising comforts, into the glitz and bling ofstcentury St.
Petersburg. Galinas story is at once a compelling pageturner and an insightful meditation on ageing and nostalgia, The Girl from the Hermitage is a fascinating glimpse into life in Russia, from WWII through the Soviet era and into modern times.

The girl in question is Galina Mikhailovna and we first meet her as a young girl induring the siege of Leningrad.
This first section is both heartbreaking and shocking in the opening scene we see Mikhail, her father, scraping the glue from the wallpaper to make soup in a desperate attempt to keep them from starvation.

The second section is set in, and Galina is now an art teacher with a husband and a son.
We catch up with the family again inwhere Galina now has a grandson, and one final time in.

Galina is a fabulous strong character and gives a personal viewpoint to a turbulent history that many of us in the west only really know from news reports.
The best historical fiction teaches you about something while you are simply engrossed in an interesting story, and this delivers on all fronts.
.