The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2025An Economist Book of the Year'An astonishing story brilliantly told . . . It is as moving as it is gripping to read'Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame 1944'A richly researched and meticulously observed account of a little-explored corner of 20th-century history'Guardian'A fantastically well-researched history of science and sacrifice saturated in drama'iWINNER OF THE CBHL LITERATURE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN HISTORYIn the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad - now St Petersburg - and began the longest blockade in recorded history.By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people.Most died of starvation. At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed - the world's first seed bank.After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists re