One of the best biographies of Dmitri Shostakovich I have read

Compelling ... a portrait of a creative artist tormented and harried by the random assaults of Stalinism

Persuasively argued and forceful ... A valid, politically driven reconsideration of the composer's works

With passionate integrity, MacDonald fastidiously builds a case to rival the most compellingly labyrinthine detective investigation. Now the great music of Shostakovich will be heard anew

Much-needed - a very fascinating insight

Anyone concerned with Soviet music, twentieth-century music, arts in politics, and politics in art, will be interested in this book

Fascinating ... Manages, better than any previous publication, to make connections between Shostakovich's work and the works of other Soviet artists whom he admired and was influenced by

A considerable tour de force of musical and social analysis which will hold its own for some time to come

Harrowing... riveting... superb

The best biography of the composer available... has broken new ground by fusing biography with political analysis. A formal lesson to Western writers on post-1917 Russia, whether their subject is music or life itself

Superb ... This compassionate and very knowledgeable book is humbling in its understanding of how far an individual can be pushed by the coercive forces of a grotesque, perhaps insane, authority

A monumental achievement