Six days in Leningrad: a memoir. Paullina Simons. 2015.

In 1998, Russian-born Paullina Simon’s returned with her father to her home country for the first time in twenty-five years to research her fourth novel, tentatively titled The Bronze Horseman.

This brief trip became a remarkable walk through a land where time had stood still. Paullina found family, old friends and a landscape still scarred by World War II  and seventy years of Communist rule. She found fields so badly bombed that even decades later nothing grew there. She found Leningrad - the shining jewel of the north built by Peter the Great - a crumbling ruin, with decaying buildings that still crowded too many people into their communal apartments. She also found extravagant hospitality, abundant food and spectacular white nights.

These six days in Leningrad changed Paulina’s life forever.