City of Thieves: A Novel

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.

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!

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.

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.

The publicity director at Viking should be ashamed. If I had been skimming my BOMC catalogue with my usual nonchalance, I never would have noticed CITY OF THIEVES, and I would've missed one of the best books I've read this year. It should be at the top of the New York Times best-seller list.

CITY OF THIEVES starts out rather slow, with a deserter and "thief" being sent to find a dozen eggs for an NKVD colonel's daughter's wedding during the siege of Leningrad. Part of the appeal is the likeability of the two characters, seventeen-year-old chess wiz Lev Beniov and Kolya, a handsome young soldier who has been accused of deserting his army unit. They meet each other at the Crossing, a Leningrad prison.

It's the little things that make the book. Lev has a big nose and he's sensitive about it. Kolya is always writing in his journal. It's only later that we learn he's writing a novel entitled "The Courtyard Hound." He's also extremely funny. The third major character is a partisan sniper named Vika. She can shoot the eyes out of an ace of spades at a hundred meters. Of course, Lev falls in love with her almost immediately. Every good book needs a villain as well and CITY OF THIEVES is not lacking in that respect. In this instance it's Sturmbannfuhrer Abendroth who saws the feet off a prostitute who had tried to run away. He's not your one-dimensional villain either. He recognizes almost immediately that Vika is not a young boy, and that Lev, Kolya, and Vika are up to something.

Author David Benioff provides incredible detail. It's kind of hard to believe he knows this much about the siege of Leningrad. It's only in the acknowledgements that we learn he wrote the book with Harrison Salisbury's The 900 Days as his major source. Not only does Benioff know a lot about the siege of Leningrad, he also seems to be a chess expert. This is the first thriller I've read where chess plays an integral part in the climax.

I know nothing about chess and I still found the game involved to be riveting. I know one thing for sure. I'll be checking out Benioff's other novel, the 25th HOUR, which has been made into a Spike Lee movie.