Excellently written and extremely informative. I barely knew anything about Shostakovich and Russian history, but I find myself wanting to learn more. At times it did feel a bit dense, but that’s probably more because I read around 80% in one day. I loved the little bits of humor and especially appreciated when the author said that certain pieces of information may not be completely accurate (really shows the level of research that went into this!). Overall, a wonderful and riveting read!