Description
Book SynopsisFrom the winner of the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize comes a fascinating and moving untold story of the Leningrad scientists who risked everything for the future of humanity
An astonishing story brilliantly told... It is as moving as it is gripping to read
Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame: 1944
A gripping, original and important story of courage and science in wartime
Roland Philipps, author of A Spy Named Orphan
In 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 s
