Leningrad

The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944

De: Anna Reid

Narrado por: Peter Drew

On September 8, 1941, 11 weeks after Hitler's brutal surprise attack on the Soviet Union, Leningrad was surrounded. The German siege was not lifted for two and a half years, by which time some three quarters of a million Leningraders had died of starvation. Stripping away decades of Soviet propaganda, and drawing on newly available diaries and government records, Anna Reid chronicles the Nazis' deliberate decision to starve Leningrad into surrender, the incompetence and cruelty of the Soviet war leadership, the horrors experienced by soldiers on the front lines, and, above all, the ordeal of life in the blockaded city.

Leningrad tackles a raft of unanswered questions: Was the size of the death toll as much the fault of Stalin as of Hitler? Why didn't the Germans capture the city? Why didn't it collapse into anarchy? What decided who lived and who died? Impressive in its originality and literary style, Leningrad gives voice to the dead and throws new light on one of the twentieth century's greatest calamities.

©2011 Anna Reid (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Horrible narration

Informative book ruined by narrator apparently unfamiliar with pronunciation of either Russian or English words.

loved it.

This book went into a ton of detail that you may not of heard any where else. Sure we all know the siege was terrible but through this book you get a tiny glimpse into what that actually means. You also get a feel for how terrible the Soviet government actually was. I also really enjoyed the narrator.

Tremendous production of gripping history

I only learned about the siege of Leningrad when I visited there about ten years ago. It was shocking to visit the memorial and learn that so many people perished from German rapacity and Soviet incompetence. Anna Reid has written this book with a master storyteller’s great sense of pacing and a historian’s respect for research. Peter Drew’s voice talent is superbly well matched to her great skills.

A truth at last revealed.

What did you love best about Leningrad?

The eye-witness accounts.

What did you like best about this story?

The whole idea. Not much is known about the siege in the West.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Peter Drew?

I might.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Battle between Darkness and Light.

Any additional comments?

None.

The Worst Exscuse for a Narrator Ever

Dear Audible,
Peter Drew's narration of Anna Reid's Leningrad is an embarrassment. The blurb indicates it was done at Audible studios and even had a producer, but I have many doubts about that. Any producer actually listening would have demanded and corrected the hundreds of mistakes in the narration. Hundreds. Here's a partial list:
RAY SHUN for ration
STALEEN for Stalin
LENEEEN for Lenin
HERMI TAJJJ for Hermitage (yes, it was separated)
SCHLIESSELBUR... something or other for Schulsselberg
CONSERVATOIR for Conservator or maybe it was supposed to Conservatory, I couldn't tell.
LONG A RIE  for lingerie (I'm serious)

This is just not acceptable. This man is supposedly a pro voice actor who does a lot of commercials and corporate voice over gigs but non fiction historical reading of a text reveals him to be nearly illiterate in a professional sense. In case Audible's leadership doesn't get it, let me spell it out for you; your only product is a voice. That's all you sell, voices in tiny earbuds or in car speakers, nothing else. It's imperative that those voices be able to read and pronounce the words they are reading.... get this... CORRECTLY.

Peter Drew's rendition of this text is just an embarrassment and I can't believe that the author would have approved it if she had any say so in the contract. It's so bad Audible needs to issue an apology by email to everyone who's ever bought this book and commission a new reading.

Maybe you ought to have a lackey read all the comments about the book and realize 90 percent of them are screaming about the narrator. I'd be tempted to say this is the worst I've ever encountered but I just suffered through an AI voiced narration of Stalingrad by Chuikov and if there's any more of an insult than using AI, it's using a twenty something cigarette smoking barfly woman's scratchy voice to record the memoir of a SOVIET general officer who commanded at the battle of STALINGRAD. I didn't look it up yet to see if that's an Audible studio production or not so I can't automatically hang that on Audible, but it's a 50/50 shot.

Get your act together, Audible. You're fumbling the ball badly.

C. Telcontar

Great story, poor narration.

Blatant disregard for proper pronunciation of Russian names. Interesting pronunciation of words like ‘ration’. Am I the only one that was annoyed by it?

Heart wrenching

This is Item #1 in the indictment of the human race, focusing on the misery that results from struggles regarding greed, power, lunacy, and the gullibility of the powerless. Sad. So sad. I continually overlapped already heard sections because I didn't want to miss a breath.

Not in depth

If you don’t know much about the siege of Leningrad but are curious this audio book is for you. I’ve listened / read other material on this subject. Not in depth or professional. I didn’t learn anything new from this book that I didn’t know from a couple pod casts and a lecture or two. Overall this book gives a great look into real human experiences we should all be glad we don’t have to experience first hand.

Good book, Horrible Performance

I've had to stop listening to this book because the performance is so monotone. The performer just drags on and on. They should take this off the market and record it. Just horrible.

great book, bad narration

a great glimpse inside the siege. narrator sounded robotic and unemotional. highly recommended for content.