The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad av Simon Parkin

349,-

Kjøp

<p><b>From 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</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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 responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?<br><br>Drawing on previously unseen sources, <i>The Forbidden Garden </i>tells the remarkable an