City of Thieves

City of Thieves by David Benioff, 258 pages.

Lev Beniov is a young man trying to reach adulthood in the harshest circumstances possible. The Nazi siege of Leningrad seems endless, everyone in the city is teetering on the edge of starvation, and crimes are punished without mercy. Which is why taking the knife off a dead German soldier is considered a crime that comes with a death sentence. A powerful colonel tells him that if he and the charismatic deserter her was imprisoned with bring him a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake, they will not only live, but be rewarded. The task seems impossible in a city that has been starving for months, but Lev and Kolya will plunge into the most dangerous situations for a chance at life.

This book has an interesting premise, and has some really solid adventure elements. That being said, it definitely feels like a book written by a man, for men. It is a coming-of-age story that feels like it has a lot to set it apart with extraordinary circumstances, but Benioff's overreliance on tired tropes makes it feel a little cliche despite everything working in its favor. It's a fairly solid work of historical fiction, but I don't know that I would recommend it unless you are particularly interested in the siege of Leningrad.

City of Thieves / David Benioff, 258 pp.

Benioff turns the buddy comedy (two completely mismatched guys are thrown together and forge a bond while overcoming big obstacles) into a beautiful tragi-comic tale.  Lev and Kolya must find a dozen eggs in siege-starved Leningrad and environs or be executed.  This unlikely scenario provides a scaffold from which Benioff can hang a series of almost unbelievably grim tableaux of violence and horror.  But he does so in an understated way, with smooth transitions and tight editing.  (Linda's review points out that Benioff is a highly successful writer of screenplays and it certainly shows.)  A brief and lovely piece of writing.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

City of Thieves by David Benioff, 258 pages, Fiction
This book buddy / road-adventure story is set in the siege of Leningrad during WWII. Lev is a seventeen-year-old Leningrad resident who is working as a fire warden with his friends and neighbors. His mother and sister have already left the city for a safer haven elsewhere. One night, while on watch, Lev and his friends leave their post to follow a parachuting German pilot, hoping for something to scavenge. When their own soldiers find them there, and Lev goes back to rescue the girl he might love, he is caught, arrested and facing execution for stealing from the state (the corpse and all its belongs became state property when the pilot landed on Russian soil). While awaiting his fate in a prison cell that night he meets Kolya, a charming deserter, who will become his closest friend. The two are spared immediate execution and sent on a crazy errand for the commanding officer. Their quest takes them behind enemy lines, into the arms of a group of resistance fighters. He and Kolya face Odessyean tasks and problems on their journey, many of them brought on by Kolya, with his over-sized sense of adventure and honor. They find danger, friendship and more. We did this for our book discussion group in February. One of my favorites from recent years.

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