Super Short Summary

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean follows Marina Buriakov, an octogenarian in Washington state grappling with Alzheimer's disease, as she revisits her memories of surviving the WWII siege of Leningrad. She constructed a vivid "memory palace" of the Hermitage's art to cope during the war, and her present-day disorientation leads her to retreat increasingly into these recollections, bridging her past and present.