Will I love City of Thieves?

One of the best novels I’ve read in years. During the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad, amid starvation and destruction, two young men embark on a bizarre quest to find eggs for an army colonel. The descriptions of hunger and misery are palpable, yet the book is often hilarious, the older of the two protagonists conveying to the younger his tips for squeezing enjoyment out of life. The novel has it all – historical insights, three-dimensional characters, a riveting plot, and humor.

This book grabbed me and never let go. Humor was infused within the tragic backdrop of Nazi Germany with perfect harmony. I loved the undying loyalty and friendship that was built between jailed teenager, Lev and his Sundance sidekick, Kolya and the eclectic band of characters they bond with while searching for a dozen eggs to use for the colonel’s daughter’s wedding cake.

Hilarious and sad. I laughed out loud many times, then my guts turned inside out from the tragic circumstances plaguing the young men as their life hung in the balance searching for those dozen eggs. 

Benioff brilliantly built the desperation during WWII through a bizarre task commanded by an NKVD officer to the protagonist and his sidekick: finding eggs for his daughter's birthday party. The book is packed with emotional roller coasters. I laughed and cried so hard, following Lev and Kolya’s journey. It’s one of my favorite WWII historical fiction.

City of Thieves occupies the top shelf in my library. Why? Is it because now I’m watching the people of Ukraine battle a merciless enemy or because David Benioff has packed a tale that swings between unlikely comrades, a tender courtship, and the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad in WWII? Maybe both answers. But I read this book years ago. The deep humanity of the story is also a thriller that made me laugh and shudder through its short length of 258 pages. It doesn’t hurt that Benioff is a gifted screenwriter, too.

Can there be any bleaker setting than Leningrad during the German siege in 1942, when starving citizens lick glue from the spines of books for food? Yet, despite the bleakness, this novel brims with humor and insight. It is structured as a quest undertaken by two prisoners: 17-year-old Lev, arrested for looting, and Kolya, a Russian soldier accused of desertion. A Russian colonel promises them freedom if they can breach the siege lines and return in two weeks with a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. Along the way the pair encounters, among others, cannibals, German soldiers, Russian partisans,… show more.

Reminiscent of the earthy humor and frank insight of Huck Finn, the novel concerns the siege of Leningrad. Hungry like so many in the city, the main character, Lev Beniov, a young Soviet boy, is arrested for looting for food. Along with an older prisoner Kolya, they are given a chance at saving their necks by a strange edict: they must find a dozen eggs for a Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. Set against the hellish world of suffering, starvation, and death that was Leningrad, the two boys set off on a quest for the eggs… show more.