City of Thieves: A Novel

Not often does a novel cover all the bases: wonderful storytelling, delicious language, well-drawn characters (both sympathetic and otherwise), and a history lesson thrown in. Difficult to watch this thoughtful tale come to an end because I was so enjoying the ride, although I actually might have preferred that the last chapter not be included--sometimes a little mystery is a good thing. On the other hand, if this really was based on the memories of the author's grandfather (as implied in the first portion of the novel), perhaps Mr. Beniov felt the rest of the story needed to be told.

Another excellent recent novel about the siege of Leningrad is "The Madonnas of Leningrad" by Debra Dean--these two will teach you more about this piece of history than you ever learned in school.

City of Thieves is a remarkable book. It is a pretty short book that has an impact beyond its page numbers.
Set in Russia during WWII during the Nazi invasion of Leningrad, the story follows a lovable Red Army soldier and a 17 year old boy who cross paths with Nazis to fulfill a strange quest. The story is by turns thoughtful as well as gruesome, heartbreaking as well as humorous.

Benioff is a gifted storyteller, with a straightforward writing style that lays it all out. The story is linear with no time jumping or other annoying literary props. The story just doesn't need them. The characters are revealed in their human imperfection with dialog that is realistic and at times very funny. The scenes are descriptive and intense. This may be a perfect novel.

David Benioff's "City of Thieves" is something of a coming-of-age tale with a twist. The twist is the fact that the tale is set in the besieged city of Leningrad in January, 1941. It is a city at war surrounded by the German army. The city is under martial law but its people are starving and fighting for food and even cannibalism is the inevitable result. The two `heroes' of the story, Lev Beniov and Kolya Vlasov are each picked up by the Red Army for crimes against the state. Lev is caught looting (taking the knife from a dead German soldier). Kolya, already a soldier is picked up and accused of desertion. Both crimes are grounds for immediate execution but the two boys are thrown together and given a `secret mission' by a Red Army officer, Colonel Grechko, who agrees to release them on the condition that they steal two dozen eggs in time for his daughter's wedding. The two dozen eggs are essential to make her a wedding cake. If they fail, they will be hunted down and shot. And with that bizarre quest ringing in their ears they are let go and sent out to scour Leningrad and the surrounding countryside in a quest for enough eggs to save their lives.

I liked City of Thieves for a number of reasons. First, Benioff does an excellent job setting the story up. It begins as a narrative of his own life as a writer and then evolves into getting his grandfather Lev to tell him the story of his experience during the war. All the author knows is that "my grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen". The story unfolds as a narrative told to his grandson. Second, the characters of Lev and Kolya were well-drawn and engaging even if Lev and Kolya did play into a couple of stereotypes, Lev the shy, quiet, intelligent Russian of Jewish descent is scrawny, short, and horribly shy around girls and seems to be able to do no more than dream wistfully of some dreamlike romantic encounters when he gets older. Kolya is handsome, tall, athletic and an accomplished Romeo. He has, if even some of his stories are true, become quite accomplished in the art of seduction. Third, the plot is well designed and well thought out. This seemingly bizarre search for eggs takes them through the dangerous streets of Leningrad into German-occupied territory where they meet up with a local group of partisans. Each story unfolds as a self-contained vignette but each has its own climactic moment that propels the reader into the next chapter. Last, Benioff has done an excellent job in creating a historically accurate picture of Leningrad during its siege. I've read a lot of non-fiction accounts of life in Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Moscow during the early years of WWII and nothing in this novel strikes me as out of touch with life during the siege including the Colonel's request for two dozen eggs.

The outcome of the story may be thought of by some as predictable but I found the ending more than satisfying even if some of the `results' did not take me totally by surprise.

I think City of Thieves is an excellent story and well worth reading. L. Fleisig

Simply put, this is one of the best books I've read in years.

I was born in Leningrad soon after the war, and grew up with many blockade stories, and can also picture in my mind the streets where the events of the book took place. The book is full of tragedies, but this is the way things really were.
One can only wonder whether the story of the authors grandfather is true, or the author's invention, and if the latter is the case, how did his grandparents manage to get out of the Stalinist nightmare during or right after the war. They should've been very lucky to survive both Hitler and Stalin...
It's so wonderful to see the bright new star of the American literature.
I'm loking forward to many more great books from him.

This book was amazing. The siege of Leningrad took over 900 days before it was finally broken. The war in the east is much neglected here in the USA, but as desperate as it was, the war in the west was nothing as brutal or costly as the war in Russia. The numbers speak for themselves. In the west, there is a dearth of lore about the eastern front. This book provides a day to day account of life during the siege of Leningrad. It is delightfully short on polemic. Somehow, the characters can find some humor, even in this most dire of situations (city surrounded, starving, and daily pummeling by effective German artillery, about to be shot by the NKVD).

The characters were completely believable, and quite likeable, in different ways. I heartily recommend this book. It is sad and joyous at the same time. I hope that the author will write more.