City of Thieves: A Novel | David Benioff

City of Thieves: A Novel | David Benioff | Perfection

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City of Thieves: A...

	City of Thieves: A Novel David Benioff Viking Adult, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

City of Thieves

It is WWII and Lev Beniov is a 17 year old Jew who has stayed in Leningrad while his sister and mother fled for the Russian countryside for safety after they are invaded by the Germans. Lev is caught looting a German paratrooper's corpse with some of his "friends" by the Russian army. As they all try to run away Lev stops to help the girl he likes. The girl gets away and does not even look back to see if Lev is safe. Because of his kindness, Lev is captured by the Russian Army and is taken to the Crosses prison, awaiting certain death because the penalty for most petty crimes and basically any crime now is execution. While awaiting his fate that night he meets Koyla (a Russian Don Juan and a cool customer) in the adjoining cell. Koyla is an alleged army deserter. As the night lingers on they talk until they both fall asleep. When they are awaken in the morning they are taken to a palace raided by the Russian army to see General Grechko. There they are thrown together and propositioned that in exchange for their lives and a ration card they need to find one dozen eggs for General Grechko's daughter's wedding which is in one week. There are no eggs to make the wedding cake. Due to the German invasion, food is very scarce. There are dead bodies everywhere due to starvation and the freezing Russian winter. It's an extremely harsh life for the Russians particularly now.

This book follows Lev and Koyla in their search for the eggs behind German occupied Russia. They encounter crazy, horrific people and impossible situations in their seemingly fruitless search since there is no food anywhere. Even the strays have disappeared. Will they live to see freedom?

This book is an enthralling and interesting read, I could not put it down.

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Perfection

Set aside some time for this book; you'll want to read it straight through to the end. A fast-moving adventure story with believable characters, it includes all of the elements that I love in a book: a backdrop of an actual time in history, excitement, danger, true friendship, love, a quest. It's a perfect book.

Best Read in a While

City of Thieves is one of the best books I have read in a long time. The story line is fantastic, it is grounded in history (the siege of Leningrad) and the prose itself is fantastic. You should check it out.

Can all of us be wrong?

I read David Benioff's first book, "The 25th Hour", based on a few recommends from fellow reviewers and friends. I read it in a couple of days, and left the book ultimately intrigued and disappointed. Benioff's writing style and use of words was lyrical and dancing. Some passages, sentences, invited rereading for the pure joy of it. The plot? Disappointing, as was the ending, which to me, didn't add up to much. Still, his writing strengths appealed to me, and the wait was worth it. "City of Thieves" is a book of staggering greatness, complete characters, and a riveting story line that won't let you go.

Benioff brings us the "story" of a week in his grandfather's life in Leningrad (fondly called Piter, after St. Petersburg, in the novel). Young Lev is young in many ways, and in essence, this is the story of his growing up over a very short amount of time, as usually happens to youth in war. One evening chess playing Lev spots a German paratrooper falling to the earth near his cement jungle of an apartment building, and goes to investigate with his troop of friends. Finding the German dead, Lev takes a small knife before being spotted by the Russian police, who have strict rules in place to maintain order in a crazed situation.

Fleeing back to the apartment building, Lev makes a choice to save a girl instead of himself, and gets caught by the police, which means certain death. In prison, he encounters another young man, a blond, charismatic lothario named Kolya. Surprisingly, they are not killed for their crimes, but get sent on an unbelievable mission by a Soviet commander in need of eggs for his daughter's wedding cake.

The two start what could simply be a buddy book, two opposites in search of an impossible goal, save for the life and death atmosphere in which they are living. The adventures of the two surprise and create for some suspenseful, page turning scenes. Benioff knows how to pace his book expertly. He uses his well crafted style to both paint complete pictures of the blight of Piter (I was hungry throughout the reading of this book), and move the plot along expertly. Especially in his characterization of Kolya, who could have come across as a blustery egomaniac, or fool, instead, you absolutely fall in love with him as he takes Lev under his wing (who lost his father before he had a chance to learn about being a man) and shows him the ways of the world. Forgive the gay jokes that occasionally pepper the book, there is a real love between the two, and it's touching.

This was the second book I read that occured in the Soviet Union, the first being Child 44. Funny, as our international relations heat up over Georgia, that two fine books that occur in the same country appeared on our store bookshelves. But I would highly recommend City of Thieves. It's that good of a read!

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It feels good to get ahold of a good book

This wasn't the best I've ever read, but it was one of the most absorbing. The characters were, however, pretty flawless. The identity of the grandmother was pretty predictable but maybe it wasn't supposed to be a cliffhanger. I read it in one sitting, it was very fast and never dull.

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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