City of Thieves: A Novel

I fell in love with all of the characters and lived through their trials right along with them. I felt their cold, hunger, fear and despair but also their love for life and optimism. This is a book I could imagine reading again even though my pile of unread books is daunting. This one is a keeper.

This was an excellent book. Well written, the characters were beautiful and entertaining. It tugs at your heart, your courage and your honor. I can't recommend this book enough. I wish some things didn't happen, but I guess we knew it was going to the whole time didn't we? Don't even think about it, cancel all your days appointments, start reading the book and you won't put it down until it's over and you'll be glad you read such a fine story.

One of these rare books where one feels lucky to have read it!
Engaging prose, subtle dark humour, brilliant descriptions of
characters; just beautiful! Do not miss this one!

Benioff nailed it. Great book. A reviewer on this site suggests, "City of Thieves is the reason you read fiction." Agreed.

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.