City of Thieves

City of Thieves by David Benioff

City of Thieves is a coming-of-age voyage (to find a dozen eggs no less) in the war torn city of Leningrad, Russia. It is the winter of 1941 and the German Army has besieged the city. Rations are non-existent, citizens are dying by the hundreds, and everyone lives in fear of being overrun by the enemy. They have no alternative but to fight for survival. Lev and Kolya, young teen-age Russians, are arrested, Lev for looting a dead paratrooper, and Kolya for desertion. With their arrests both are destined to take a short trip that ends with their backs poised against a wall brushed with blood. But before their execution in the face of a firing squad they are given a reprieve by the city's acting military commander. They are ordered on a mission to find a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. They are given less than a week to complete their task and their ration cards are confiscated. Without a means of obtaining food what else can they do but try and fulfill the task. But in a city that has resorted to cannibalism where could they possibly find what they search for? The story develops as the two young men head off in search of the prized components.

Based on the true-life adventures of Benioff's grandfather we are transported to a city that has fallen on the hardest of times. Starvation, desperation, and self-preservation are the only law in Leningrad and that image of desolation and destruction lays the groundwork for the rest of the story. The quest for eggs takes them to a private whore house in the woods, to Russian partisans in the rural outskirts of the city, and to a German military camp where the final stand-off is played over a chess set. Benioff explores the grief and indifference of the characters while they hide from snipers, infiltrate a line of captured prisoners and eventually find what they were looking for. Peace!

This is a true heart-rending story written with love, care and consideration. Well worth the read.

4 ½ stars out of 5

http://thealternativeone.blogspot.com/

8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

Can't Wait for the Movie!

Perhaps the finest work of historical fiction I have read in decades. The author draws the reader in via a slick bit of writing that sets the stage for a leap back to wartime St. Petersburg. There follows a development of characters that is truly exceptional. This is a book that hooks the reader in a fashion that moves from not wanting to put it down to can't put it down.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

The horror of war captured through the eyes of a teenage boy in Leningrad

City of Thieves by David Benioff is the fictionalized story of the author's grandfather's experiences in World War II Leningrad. Lev Beniov has remained in the city during the siege by the Germans, despite the evacuation of his mother and sister. Living in an apartment building with other teens, they've become a family of sorts, but when he is caught looting the body of a German paratrooper, Russian soldiers take him to prison to be executed. His cellmate for the evening is Kolya, a soldier accused of deserting his post. In the morning, instead of facing a firing squad, Lev and Kolya are ordered by a general to find a dozen eggs in five days time for his daughter's wedding cake. In a city that has resorted to eating the paste out of library books for the protein, this is a Herculean task, but if they don't succeed, the men will be hunted down by the general's men and lose their ration cards, either outcome meaning certain death. The two travel the city in the quest for eggs and come across horrific scenes of depravity along with startling compassion and generosity. Their quest for the eggs becomes something more, elevating and teaching Lev and Kolya about what it means to be human and to fight for something bigger than themselves.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

My Gracious

This was such an exciting read; I couldnt put it down. I was hooked from beginning to end. Easily my favorite book on Earth. You are missing out if you dont read this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very enteraining book!!!

It was a very good book. It is a work of fiction, but still has a lot of historical events that took place. The characters were very believeable and there was a good story line. I am trying to get my teenage kids to read the book, just so they can see what World War II might have been like in Russia. It had funny moments, a few scary/tight spot moments and even had a little romance in it. A very entertaining book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Incredible Writing Style

David Benioff needs to write another book, as I'm impatiently waiting! City of Thieves was fabulous. I can't say enough about his writing style. Great character development, great storytelling that moves forward, humor and emotion often in the same sentence. He's incredible. After reading this, I grabbed his other books without even seeing what they were about. I can't get enough.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good balance of comedy and tragedy

This book has all the makings of a coming of age historical foreign movie (makes sense, the author is also a screenwriter). I can actually picture the movie in my head and watching it. It's something I would watch. It's both funny yet certain parts remind me of the horrors of war still thriving within the city. The story is told in the point of view of Lev who's young and stays behind while his mother and sister move away from the city. His father, is most likely dead, as he gets arrested and is never seen again. When he meets Kolya, the charming deserter who seems to have a tale for everything and has to say something every waking moment, they make a comical duo. Lev is very surly at first and is annoyed frequently by Kolya, who doesn't really care what he thinks of him and keeps on going with his little quirks and stories of his various romantic conquests and how he hasn't gone to the bathroom in a very long time.

I liked this book because of its' interesting mix of comedy and drama set in a rather serious and sombre setting. Come to think of it, I haven't even read a book set in World War II where there is comedy in it. In fact I think it's quite a rarity, yet this kind of rarity, and written and executed well, makes it a rare gem. I have to admit, I liked Kolya from the start. You could tell he was the comic relief of the duo here. He provided the light hearted side of the story and actually had very funny and interesting things to say. It was hard to like Lev. I don't know what to make of him. Surly, hard to like, easily angered (really all the makings of an angsty teenager) although on the other hand, he knew how to survive on the streets which had made him mature faster while Kolya was more of the child of this twosome. However towards the end of the book where Lev actually does grow up both mentally and physically, I started to rather respect him more as his character developed.


The things I didn't like about this book? well for starters, there were some very graphic and gruesome parts that aren't for the squeamish and some parts even made me squirm uncomfortably. Lev rather annoyed me because he wouldn't stop thinking as how Vika would look naked (and those moments increased towards the end of the book) it got annoying and stagnant. One other criticism, what happened to Kolya was rather predictable in the end. I figured that out at least before halfway of the novel. (Which is why I said it had all the makings of a great foreign movie).

Despite these faults, I enjoyed reading the book and following these two on their dangerous journey to find eggs. The whole finding eggs bit does make it comical but on the other hand it's mixed so well with the horr

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Outstanding

There's something about reading how so many people struggled during World War II, that gives you an appreciation for the smaller things in life. Like eggs! It may not be David Benioff's intention to evoke thought of your own vulnerability, but his story does. And does it well. I found myself feeling for the characters and wondering what it would be like to be Lev. To be thrust out of your comfort zone and into such dire circumstances. We all have a Kolya in our lives. That person we love to hate yet hate to love! Someone who, after all they put you through, can show you their weakness and you do nothing but tell them it'll be alright.
This story brought me to a place that I haven't been to in a long time and kept me there until it was over.
A very good read in my opinion. Worth checking out.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Darkly Funny

This dark comedy makes it mark with its origina, absurd plot: a teenage Jew and a Red Army deserter pair up on a mission to find a dozen eggs in a starving, barbaric city with their lives at stake. This novel has very memorable characters, with events to match. It will make you laugh, only to wipe the smile off your with the horrors on every page. A resonant novel to be read by all. Benioff holds nothing back.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Readers will want to join Kolya and Lev on their quest to find the Holy Grail: a dozen eggs.

During the Nazi siege of Leningrad, seventeen year old Lev Beniov remains in the city alone as his dad "officially" vanished several years earlier and his mom and sis were evacuated. However, he is unable to stay in hiding as he needs food, but he is caught looting. The Germans execute looters on the spot. Yet Nazi Colonel Grechko offers Lev and equally guilty twenty year old Russian army deserter Kolya a chance to live. They are to obtain twelve eggs in five days for his daughter's wedding cake; failure means death.

They quickly know the black market has nothing for sale. Thus the duet works their way behind the Nazi line as they assume nearby farms are their best bet. Lev and Kolya stumble onto a Nazi death squad sexually abusing Russian women and help the partisans kill the Nazi beasts. As they witness more atrocities, the unlikely duo becomes friends while Lev is attracted to kick-butt partisan sniper Vika.

This deep look at the atrocities of war stars a coming of age odd couple who forge a friendship out of surviving the abuses they encounter in spite of Kolya being a confident extrovert and Lev a self mocking introvert with the latter telling their story. The story line is fast-paced with plenty of action; much of which accentuates the abuses, carnage, and the scarcities the civilian population face. Readers will want to join Kolya and Lev on their quest to find the Holy Grail: a dozen eggs.

Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

City of Thieves

Not just another hotshot American novelist, David Benioff also has his hands dipped in the lucrative trade of Hollywood scriptwriting. Aside from adapting his own novel, The 25th Hour, into a Spike Lee film that starred Edward Norton, he wrote the screenplay for Troy and adapted Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner for the big screen. Perhaps that is why, reading his latest book, you get a sense of watching events unfold in a cinematic manner, with enough details about the protagonists to start casting actors in your mind. In the short prologue, Benioff snappily etches out a writer's relationship with his retired grandfather whom he is interviewing for a magazine article. Just enough hints are dropped here to draw you into the main story with the lure of discovering how this Russian Jew killed two Germans before he turned 18. In 1942, with Germany having begun its infamous siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg), a 17-year-old Lev finds himself alone in a cut-off city, after his family fled to Vyazma. Caught by Russian authorities for theft, he is unexpectedly spared from punishment and instead given a task to undertake with a 20-year-old army deserter, Kolya - to bring back a dozen eggs for the wedding of a colonel's daughter. Now, in the chaotic, food-scarce city, this order is not easily accomplished by visiting the nearest grocer. Rather, it is a suicide mission that will take the duo into the treacherous countryside beyond enemy lines. The symbolism of theft hovers over the entire book - from the plundering invaders, to cannibalistic urban dwellers preying on children, to (as mentioned in passing conversation between the protagonists) the possibility of Shostakovich plagiarizing from Mahler. City Of Thieves is not only a poetic coming-of-age tale and a surrealistic odyssey filled with unnerving encounters and ironic outcomes. It is ultimately a heart-rending study on our rootedness to home, city and nation.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Engaging about a dozen eggs?

One of the best books I have read this year a must read. The story of two young men and a mission to get a dozen egg to save there lives. The premise alone will get you hook and non-stop read through it to get to the end.

Let me preface this review by saying it has been several months

Let me preface this review by saying it has been several months since I have read this book. That being said however, City of Thieves was powerful enough to leave a lasting impression.

City of Thieves is narrated by the young, fictionalized grandfather of author David Benioff, Lev Beniov. Lev is arrested after looting a paratrooper. In prison, he meets up with the charming, charismatic Kolya who has just deserted his army unit. The two of them are given a reprieve of sorts if they can track down a dozen eggs in war torn Leningrad within a week.

Their mission takes them on harrowing adventures through a Dante-esque landscape. So harrowing in fact, that portions of the book are not for the faint of heart. Some scenes are down right grotesque and troubling, even for this jaded and hardened reader. However, they serve a purpose and only make the ending that much more poignant.

The ending reveals the brilliance and beauty of the title. Everyone is a thief in war torn Russia, from the bottom up.

Creative, Clever and Crude at times

The story and David Benioff's writing style kept my interest throughout the book. But I could have done without reading the crude sexual boyhood descriptions and I really dislike it when I am forced to read the "C" word when describing females, but luckily that wasn't too often. So aside from that, it was a good book.

Best book ever!!!!! Highly recommended

So I read the overview and it sounded like a good book, but I was wrong it wasn't just good it was like the top of the top of greatness of all books. I wouldn't recommend it if your in like elementary school cause it's got some adult stuff in it... If you know what I mean. But if your looking for a good book and can't find one then this is the book for you. You won't be disappointed , trust me I know!

quick read

Picked this up at the library this afternoon and I am halfway thru the book - easy reading; good characterization if a bit simplistic. I haven't read much about the siege of Leningrad but the scenes seem true to life and realistic; makes me wonder how Americans would have survived if war had reached our cities.

Great book

I couldnt put it down. I loved it!!

Great book

I love reading about Russia and this book is well written. I enjoyed the relationship between the 2main characters. I wish it were longer. I wanted to know more and for the story to continue. I would recommend this book. A short easy read.

Okay, but inadequately developed characters

Simply stated, the book was readable, but that’s the best I can say for it. Despite its potential to be a gripping story, it was not. It did not draw me in and I was not engaged. I finished it because it is a book club selection. In the end, I did not give a hoot about the characters - not the mark of a great book.

Very good.

Enjoyed it... a diamond in the rough