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City of Thieves

4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 · rating details · 31,175 ratings · 4,661 reviews

As wise and funny as it is thrilling and original - the story of two young men on an impossible adventure. A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. His grandmother won't talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to sur...more

Hardcover, 258 pages

Published May 15th 2008 by Viking Adult (first published January 1st 2008)

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Mar 09, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2006-2010, historical-fiction, world-war-the-sequel, audiobook

in the aftermath of my tryst with this beautiful, intelligent novel, I was hobbled by lancinating pain stemming from a burning, itching question repeatedly sounding off in my head…why didn’t I love this book MORE?

Why?

I love historical fiction, especially tales set in WW the Sequel, and Benioff’s crisp, effortless prose is smart and pleasurable without ever become overly clever or self-indulgent. The plot device of surreal "forced" shopping expedition to track down a dozen eggs against the backdr...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by: Ted Posselius

Shelves: world-war-ii, russia, nkvd, winter, love, grandparents, writers, coming-of-age, friendship, adventure, jewish, courage

“I was built for deprivation.”

“For Mother Russia!” I toast. Gulp. Slam down my vodka. Twenty million Russians sacrificed their lives in World War II, and I do not know the name of a single one of them. I can do nothing but gawk at and salute such heroism and endurance. David Benioff gives us a story about friendship and coming of age in a time of deprivation.

Many of us are interested in dystopias, but City of Thieves is about a real one—the Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during World War I...more

61 likes · like · see review

Dec 05, 2012 Buggy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical, love-story, shelf-11, war, survival

Opening Line:"My grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen."

I came away from this feeling, very cold, very hungry and with an inexplicable need to make sure my pantry was full. CITY OF THIEVES is a fantastic story; set in 1942 during the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad. It’s a coming of age story filled with adventure, suspense, friendship, romance and tragedy all washed down with (from what I understand) a historically accurate picture of Leningrad during the bl...more Opening Line:"My grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen."

I came away from this feeling, very cold, very hungry and with an inexplicable need to make sure my pantry was full. CITY OF THIEVES is a fantastic story; set in 1942 during the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad. It’s a coming of age story filled with adventure, suspense, friendship, romance and tragedy all washed down with (from what I understand) a historically accurate picture of Leningrad during the blockade.

I should point out that despite the events of the time this is also a surprisingly funny read as our two main characters; Kolya the romantic optimist and Lev with his random internal observations both have an interesting way of looking at life around them during the absurdities of war.

The story begins with a powerful opening chapter; a writer asks his grandfather to tell him about his experiences during the war. All the narrator knows -and he doesn’t remember anyone telling him its just one of those family folklores that he always has- is that his grandfather, "the knife fighter" killed two Germans before he was eighteen and is missing a finger. And so Lev begins to tell his story to his grandson. Talking openly for the first time about his childhood, coming to America and sex. Mostly though he talks about a two week period in 1942 when he met his best friend, the woman that would become his wife and killed two Germans. I actually referred back to this chapter several times during the course of the book and again when I finished.

Its January 1942 Leningrad is under marshal law, surrounded by the German army and what’s left of its inhabitants are starving. Our hero 17 year old Lev Beniov has just been arrested for looting and placed in a cell with a handsome friendly deserter named Kolya Vlasov. Both of their crimes are grounds for execution and as our heroes get to know each other that’s what they expect come morning. However in a twist of fate they are given a chance to save their own lives, a secret mission for a powerful soviet colonel, all they have to do is find a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake.

A dozen eggs in a city cut off from supplies, a city resorting to cannibalism and eating glue from book spines to survive. It is of course a ludicrous and impossible task one which takes our new friends far into German occupied territory, through the bitter cold of winter and countless adventures and atrocities. The outcome didn’t really surprise me but I haven't stopped thinking about it either.

“One moment I thought I had a few minutes left to live; the next a sniper was flirting with me. Was she flirting with me? The days had become a confusion of catastrophes; what seemed impossible in the afternoon was blunt fact by the evening. German corpses fell from the sky; cannibals sold sausage links made from ground human in the Haymarket; apartments blocs collapsed to the ground; dogs became bombs; frozen soldiers became sign posts. I had no food in my belly, no fat on my bones and no energy to reflect on this parade of atrocities. I just kept moving, hoping to find another half slice of bread for myself and a dozen eggs for the colonel’s daughter.”(less)

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Jun 22, 2008 Doug Bradshaw rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Especially men, but women will like it too.

Recommended to Doug by: NY Times, EW

I have read some good fiction lately, but this one is special like "Catcher in the Rye" or "The Curious Incident" or maybe "The Kite Runner". Instead of telling the story, I will make observations as to why I loved it:

1. Many historical fiction novels are written from the perspective of the thinking of the time. Although it is interesting to observe how people think people thought in the past, it can be a little too un-modern and sometimes boring, like reading "Moby Dick" or some other great, b...more I have read some good fiction lately, but this one is special like "Catcher in the Rye" or "The Curious Incident" or maybe "The Kite Runner". Instead of telling the story, I will make observations as to why I loved it:

1. Many historical fiction novels are written from the perspective of the thinking of the time. Although it is interesting to observe how people think people thought in the past, it can be a little too un-modern and sometimes boring, like reading "Moby Dick" or some other great, but somewhat over the top book. Here, we are set back in time by the grandson who is just like us, telling the story his grandfather tells him, but with language and interpretations that are how we think about things today. Instead of finding this tool to be unrealistic and too Hollywood modern, I found just the opposite. I felt like I really was back in time and I related to the characters like they were my best friends and buddies. I loved this approach to history telling.

2. The primary relationship in the book is between a shy, 17 year old Jewish boy who is intelligent, clever, educated and a great story teller. There is a running dialogue in his head describing his sometimes ridiculous and unimportant thoughts and observations as life threatening things are occurring. His older buddy is a young "man of the world" a college boy who is experienced with women, a writer and philosopher, a handsome and sometimes arrogant guy. He puts his arm around his younger shy friend's shoulder and starts to teach him about wine women and song. It is a touching and fun relationship that works as well as any friendship relationship I've ever read. The observations of the younger as to the older's sometimes graphic and raunchy statements and experiences are absolutely brilliant and spot on. This is how life and relationships really work and the author has been able to convey these experiences in a way that makes us relive similar things in our lives as older kids taught us about what really goes on in the adult world and we're half thinking it's a lie and half believing it, yet shaking our heads. I can't think of a book I've read that does this kind of coming of age relationship as well.

3. Because the story moves fast and is more about relationships and internal observations, you would think that the history of the time is secondary. However, the story gives us a very realistic feeling of how it must have been to be suffering through the invasion of the Germans into Leningrad in the horrible cold of the winter without much good food or shelter or equipment. There is a lot of good information about the cold and calculated way of the Nazis and the underfunded and yet heroic attempts of the Russian people to fend them off. And yet, as important as the historical setting of the book is, the thing that makes it work well is the commentary and thoughts of our two friends and eventually heroes.

4. There are many other great characters in the book from the brilliant and interesting Nazi leader, an intense and talented young female sniper, and the spoiled and wealthy man who sends them on their ridiculously trivial mission in the first place.

This book is the reason you read fiction.(less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Maciek rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-war-2, historical-fiction, coming-of-age, read-in-2012, reviewed

Growing up in Poland you couldn't escape but be exposed to Polish war movies and dramas. The war defined this country and its people, with the country being completely destroyed and around 5,6 million people dead; because the Western powers trusted Stalin the country borders also changed, with parts of eastern Poland being ceded to contemporary Ukraine and Lithuania. But the rotten top of the cake came when the country fell under the influence of the USSR, and disappeared behind the Iron Curtain...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-reads

A story that combines excellent characterization and a suspenseful plot. Not too many characters in this one, which gave the author the ability to nearly fully develop the two main characters. The author was able to capture the terror of war, yet was able to offset this terror with some humor. The main characters are young men, Kolya and Lev. I have seen this described as a coming of age story. I don't know what that is - the path to maturity being neither straight nor common. It is a story of f...more

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Feb 26, 2010 Newengland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, finished-in-2010

You know how annoying it is when a book’s ending is so unrealistic that you say to yourself in disgust, “This would never play out like this in real life!”? It’s happened more than once, right? But a funny thing sometimes happens on the way to the forum. Sometimes your peevishness gets assassinated. Sometimes you’re so damned entertained by a book that you act like a sailor on leave and say, “Ah, what the hell!” Sometimes you’re so amused by the characters that you see that suspension bridge of...more You know how annoying it is when a book’s ending is so unrealistic that you say to yourself in disgust, “This would never play out like this in real life!”? It’s happened more than once, right? But a funny thing sometimes happens on the way to the forum. Sometimes your peevishness gets assassinated. Sometimes you’re so damned entertained by a book that you act like a sailor on leave and say, “Ah, what the hell!” Sometimes you’re so amused by the characters that you see that suspension bridge of disbelief and you cross it -- cheerfully, yet.

This is the case with David Benioff’s oddly mesmerizing historical foray, CITY OF THIEVES. The quixotic quest book offers a little something for everyone. Russophiles and history buffs will love it because it’s set in Leningrad during the siege, and the author has done his homework, making the setting and background events accurate. Coming-of-age fans will like it because the protagonist, a tough but runty Russian Jew who is only 17, will worm his way into the apple core of your heart. Humor enthusiasts will take to it because it is rich with witty badinage, much of it thanks to Kolya, the Red Army sidekick whose libido leads him AWOL and into deep doo-doo with the Russian military.

Together, Lev and Kolya are spared death (one for breaking curfew, the other for looking for love when he should have been on guard with his unit) if they can bring back a certain colonel one dozen eggs. Why? The colonel’s daughter is getting married at the end of the week and needs a huge wedding cake in a city that is about as eggless as a grunting rooster. Ridiculous? Sure. Fun? Indubitably. But the sights our heroes come across during their journey are anything but laughable and, at times, downright gruesome.

War is hell, yes, but it also offers ironies in spades. Ante up, then, because Benioff is dealing. You might consider Kolya a tad over-the-top, and you might agree with me that the showdown with the Germans toward the end “stretches things a bit,” but what the hell – if you’re charmed, you’re in a good mood; and if you’re in a good mood, you tend to let certain things go. Thus, the suspension of disbelief. Thus, the four stars. Thus, the hearty recommendation, reservations notwithstanding. This one’s a page-turner. This one I think you'll like.
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Nov 14, 2009 Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Rose by: NYTimes best seller list

Shelves: group-local-book-club

This book has it all; a perilous quest, a “buddy story”, history, romance, comedy and drama. I looked at it as an anti-war novel. The beauty of youth innocence set against the brutal and gruesome truths about the cost of war.

A reviewer on amazon put it best with this:
“As Americans, we often have a very one-dimensional view of World War II: "we" took out the Nazis and the Japanese. That the Soviet Union -- soon our enemy for the next forty-plus years -- was our ally, and probably had more to do...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Stephan van der Linde rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, adventure

Another Brilliant story about friendship during wartime. WO II.

This story is about two total different boys, who are forced to find a dozen eggs for a colonel daughter's wedding in 5 days.

An impossible mission where there's barely food in the Ruins of assaulted Russia. The boys, the confident good looking Kolya and the insecure, smaller jew Lev encounter all kinds of danger, betrayal and despair.

This book blew me away. I Loved Benioff's debut 25th Hour, but this is just as good.
Even though i...more

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Jun 05, 2010 Laurel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

This is a gripping read. I had trouble putting it down.

The story is set in Russia during WWII after the Nazi's have overtaken Leningrad. When Lev Beniov is arrested for looting, he is thrown in jail with an alleged Russian army deserter named Kolya. Rather than being executed the next morning as Lev is expecting, they are instead ordered to fulfill a surprising and ridiculous mission: in the midst of chaos, war, brutality and starvation, they must find a dozen eggs for a colonel to use for his...more This is a gripping read. I had trouble putting it down.

The story is set in Russia during WWII after the Nazi's have overtaken Leningrad. When Lev Beniov is arrested for looting, he is thrown in jail with an alleged Russian army deserter named Kolya. Rather than being executed the next morning as Lev is expecting, they are instead ordered to fulfill a surprising and ridiculous mission: in the midst of chaos, war, brutality and starvation, they must find a dozen eggs for a colonel to use for his daughter's wedding cake.

Sounds a bit bizarre, doesn't it? A WWII egg hunt? But it works. It works really well. I was mesmerized from beginning to end as these two young men embark on their mission and encounter one brutal, hair-raising scenario after another.

What was most interesting to me about this book, however, was the coming-of-age relationship between Lev and Kolya. Lev is a shy, pensive and somewhat innocent boy of 17, while Kolya is slightly older, reckless, much more experienced and at times outrageous in his behavior and commentary. In the course of their journey, Kolya openly (and a bit crudely) teaches a reluctant Lev what he knows about women, and as their friendship grows, Lev also learns from Kolya important lessons about bravery and loyalty.

There is some foul language in this book, and as mentioned above, some rather crude comments about women and sex. Some may find this offensive. However, if you remove it, I think you lose part of what made Kolya seem so genuine, real and flawed. I personally never felt offended by any of his remarks.... they sometimes made me cringe, but I still found him oddly endearing. And funny. Really funny. Kolya is without a doubt a very likable protagonist, even if (or perhaps in part because) he can at times be a little inappropriate.

There's a lot of violence in this book as well. This is to be expected in any war novel, of course. But the violence here is not just of your typical battle scene. There is murder, starvation, cannibalism, animal cruelty, and even (in one particular scene) intensely disturbing abuse of a young teenage girl by Nazi soldiers. And yet, these were and often can be the realities of war and extreme famine. The violence never felt gratuitous to me, and despite it all, there was enough humor and tenderness in-between all the brutality to make it ultimately heart-warming and even uplifting by the book's end.

In fact, it is not the violence nor the language that will most vividly stay in my mind. It's the wonderful story-telling, the characters, the relationship between Lev and Kolya, and the message of the power of friendship, loyalty and humor in the midst of dire circumstances. While I can't recommend this to everyone, I do think it's most definitely a worthwhile, well-written and touching story. 4.5 stars.
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Aug 11, 2008 Edan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Edan by: Patrick Brown

Taking this to Kauai...

...This book is incredibly fun to read--at every turn there was something to discover (Will they be killed? What's in that cabin?), and the characters were well-drawn and interesting.

I was going to give this book 4 stars, because it's pleasantly readable, and the prose itself is really nice, but something about it felt, in the end, not real. Maybe a little antiseptic? Not sure--Patrick said it feels like an old movie about the siege of Leningrad, rather than a real story...more

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May 12, 2009 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, russia, world-war-two-fiction

Good story. Kind of clever to have a quest for a dozen eggs lead them on their journey of friendship and danger. The most interesting thing about the book for me was learning about the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted three years. Three years of starvation with no food to be had at any price; corpses everywhere, just left to rot; and brutal cold, with every bit of wood, including the trees, already hacked up and used for heating.

Those who are offended by crassness will probably want to avoid th...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Ami rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-fiction, fiction_historical

This book was my attempt to get out of my comfort reading zone. I tend to avoid anything historical or those considered as literature fictions. But, it was one of my New Year Reading resolution -- and I saw a couple of my friends list gave a high rating for this one. Unfortunately, I didn't love it as much. I found myself agreeing with one of the Reviews regarding the reasons.

Good things first ... the writing was well-crafted. There were some scenes that were vividly detailed that made me eithe...more

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Sep 10, 2008 Armand rated it 4 of 5 stars

An independent bookstore owning friend handed me this book at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, noting that occasionally he put the book down just so he would have the pleasure of picking it up another day. In terms of the story’s ability to engage, I see his point. Although I take his recommendations seriously, I was most excited because Benioff adapted his first book, 25th Hour, into one of my favorite Spike Lee films. Not surprisingly, City of Thieves reads like a good movie, with a steady, ea...more An independent bookstore owning friend handed me this book at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island, noting that occasionally he put the book down just so he would have the pleasure of picking it up another day. In terms of the story’s ability to engage, I see his point. Although I take his recommendations seriously, I was most excited because Benioff adapted his first book, 25th Hour, into one of my favorite Spike Lee films. Not surprisingly, City of Thieves reads like a good movie, with a steady, easy pacing. The book is a pleasure to read, even though the subject matter gets tougher by the page. As the story unfolds, Bennioff weaves grisly details of life in Leningrad during the German blockade of WWII until you can’t help but feel the cold of a Soviet winter or the hunger of a country at wartime and a city cut-off from its supplies.

The book centers on two young men who meet in jail. Both would ordinarily be executed for their minor offenses but for the lifesaving fools errand of a Soviet commander – find a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake in exchange for their lives. So Lev and Kolya make their way through the bombed out city, its black markets and apartment buildings, and into German controlled Soviet territory. While City of Thieves is principally Lev’s coming of age story (complete with the sex-obsessed, bathroom humor of young men), the fear and physical deprivation transports the book to something else all together. About two-thirds into the book, a string of chapters each finish with such horrific endings that I wanted to start another just for some relief. The brutality never feels like overkill, though, just accurate. If anything, the book falters when the story resolves so cleanly, but from the outset the reader knows that’s the only result. And that’s the odd trick of this book.

A short prelude describes a screenwriter named “David”, living in L.A. with his actress girlfriend, writing about mutant superheroes (in fact, David Benioff lives in L.A. with wife Amanda Peet (!) and has written the screenplay for the forthcoming Wolverine movie). “David” travels to Florida to spend a week with his grandfather, Lev, finally getting him to talk about the war. Before the story even begins, then, we know Lev survives (minus a finger), meets the love of his life (the still living grandmother who refuses to cook), makes his best friend, and kills two Germans. It’s an odd way to start a novel that could easily have been told straight. Perhaps, though, this is Benioff’s way of offering some small relief for the reader – despite the horror of the Siege of Leningrad, and all that cold and death and hunger – a little bit of knowledge to carry along the way that something good will work itself out.(less)

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Aug 30, 2008 Meagan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: russia, world-war-two, coming-of-age, attempted-to-read, 2008-reads

I was really looking forward to this book being that it had great reviews and I am really interested in the Siege of Leningrad. Unfortunately for me it was just too crude and I stopped reading about 100 pages in. (I did want to know how everything turned out so I read the ending in order have a little resolution.) It was a fast, entertaining read with a lot of dark humor- those parts I did enjoy.

The other issue I had with it is that I had a hard time over looking the fact that he had his two ma...more

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Feb 07, 2009 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

A strangely terrible book. I read it from cover to cover, skipping only a few passages, which I almost never do in a book this bad. And there's nothing, on the surface, that is really bad. The plot is compelling, the characters pretty interesting when they're not merely comic book sketches, the atmosphere in a lot of scenes seems just right. The only problem was that I didn't believe a single word of it. People in wartime, in life-or-death situations, simply don't think or feel this way. I could...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Tanja (Tanychy) St. Delphi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let me be honest first. I considered giving this book 3 stars, but then I read reviews and the truth is this book doesn't deserve such a low rating. I would feel guilty to give it 3 stars just because it's not my "cup-of-tea" book. So I'm giving it 4 stars and here is why.
Because it's beautifully written. I enjoyed in some descriptions and story itself is told in really nice way. It's really readable and while you're reading it you see that you're on the half of the book and you can't believe i...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This one is more like a 4 and a half stars, or maybe 4 and 3/4 stars. My friends, it is teetering dangerously close to a 5-star review!

I may update it to 5-stars later, after I've had more time to consider it.

I loved the story of the friendship between Lev and Kolya. The stories were woven together so nicely: stories of the Russian grandparents in America, who made their living selling insurance over the phone in Bay Ridge (Brooklyn, NY) and then moved to Florida; and their grandson, who is a "m...more This one is more like a 4 and a half stars, or maybe 4 and 3/4 stars. My friends, it is teetering dangerously close to a 5-star review!

I may update it to 5-stars later, after I've had more time to consider it.

I loved the story of the friendship between Lev and Kolya. The stories were woven together so nicely: stories of the Russian grandparents in America, who made their living selling insurance over the phone in Bay Ridge (Brooklyn, NY) and then moved to Florida; and their grandson, who is a "mutant superheroes" screenplay writer in Los Angeles; and of course: the Russian grandparents in Russia, and the people they knew, and the stories based on the siege of St. Petersburg / Leningrad / Piter during World War II.

The book is written in a terse and easy-going style ... it is descriptive without being overly so ... it is graphic and violent when it unfortunately needed to be, for the story's sake .... and it provides a good dose of humor and endearment through the carefully crafted characters of Kolya, Lev, and Vika. Much of the conversation with Kolya and Lev, as well as Lev's internal dialog, had me laughing out loud. During the course of the book, I must admit to falling head over heels for BOTH of the male leads. But especially sweet and morose, pessimistic little Lev. :)

I loved this book, except I wasn't thrilled about some of the plot points at the end. I wish the author had put some kind of twist to it so that these very disappointing things didn't happen. I mean .... we expected them for a reason; there was foreshadowing, but I wish the foreshadowing had been more of a ruse. Kind of like ... you're on a roller coaster, you think you're going to die, and then TA-DAAA! You don't die! Hurray! See how much that fun that was!!! I wish the author had done something more like that at the end of the book.

Despite my quibbles with the ending, I really did love this book. It was beautiful and finely crafted in so many ways. Am still considering the 5 stars. :)

And, is it just me, or does anyone else hear this book screaming out .... MOVIE SCRIPT!!! I hope they can find the perfect actors, and a movie producer who can do this book justice. If they can do a good job with this, I would love to see the movie. In the meantime ... maybe I will read the book again, just because I loved the characters (Lev and Kolya) so much. :)
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Aug 30, 2011 Lee Krieger rated it 5 of 5 stars

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
I must have picked it up a while ago, but never got around to reading it.
Last week, after finishing a book, I found it, read the back cover and begrudgingly decided to give it a try.

Spending time in Leningrad, during the siege, even fictionally, proves to be a draining experience. Conditions, especially the lack of food, were hard to stomach, and made me want to go to my refrigerator and peer into it.
However, the story, which moved along...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Jeff rated it 2 of 5 stars

About as mediocre a book as you could ever find...

Prose readable but never interesting, embedded with excruciating rhetorical questions and banal turns of phrase such as "he shook me till my bones rattled."

Well conceived but poorly imagined, with physical descriptions of a city reading as if lifted from a boring history book...feels like flesh of fiction being draped on a skeleton of historical fact, with the result a wrinkled, gaunt body such as so many described in the book (everyone's starvin...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Crystal Starr Light rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, historical, audiobook

The story starts with a young man approaching his grandparents and asking them to tell him a story of the days of Leningrad. So the grandfather does.

Lev Beniov lives in Leningrad during the Nazi siege. He is caught looting a German paratrooper and along with deserter, Kolya, are now tasked with finding a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding. The young men embark on this journey, eventually leaving Leningrad and heading beyond enemy lines.

This is one peculiar book. On the one hand, I r...more The story starts with a young man approaching his grandparents and asking them to tell him a story of the days of Leningrad. So the grandfather does.

Lev Beniov lives in Leningrad during the Nazi siege. He is caught looting a German paratrooper and along with deserter, Kolya, are now tasked with finding a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding. The young men embark on this journey, eventually leaving Leningrad and heading beyond enemy lines.

This is one peculiar book. On the one hand, I really thought Benioff created excellent scenes, stunning imagery, painfully realistic events. On the other hand, I wanted to skip almost every conversation between Kolya and Lev. But to explain that, let me back up a bit.

Character-wise, I didn't find anything extraordinary. Lev is a 19 year old half-Jewish boy with an obscenely large nose (because he's Jewish, get it?) and an interest in chess. Kolya is a slightly older young man, interested in poetry, reading, and writing. Veeka is a female sniper. And there are other characters--but I couldn't name them to you even if my life depended on it. Beyond this rough characterization, I have no clue who these people are. Lev talks about his surroundings, but he seems oddly detached, as if nothing is truly affecting him--which is hard, because he is our viewpoint character, our narrator. He is the one telling the story. If our own narrator doesn't really care about what's happening, why should the reader? Kolya can't go a single conversation without twisting it to sex. And Veeka is every man's dream woman: cold as ice and able to use a sniper rifle (not that I deny the later; using a sniper rifle is, indeed, sexy).

Who are these people? What are their goals? How are they feeling? I feel hopelessly lost. I think back and can't remember a single moment where I felt intensely connected to the characters, where I ached with them or mourned with them. And there is a character close to Lev who dies. I didn't A) mourn the loss of the character or B) feel empathy with Lev over the loss of someone so close to him.

What really aggravated me is how almost all of the interactions between Kolya and Lev were about sex (or Kolya's inability to take a crap--good, GOD, that got old!!). I am not a guy, so I don't know much about "male bonding". Somehow I doubt that men spend almost every other conversation with another guy bragging about how many women they've had sex with, shaming the virgin for not having sex (Lev is a virgin, a horrible thing for a young man!), and lusting after some woman they just met and wanting to bed her. The latter really disgusted me; at one point, the young men enter the home of four women. They have been forced into prostitution. The way Kolya and Lev treat the women--as if they are dirty and vile for Germans repeatedly raping them just so they could stay alive--how they can only seem to concentrate on their tits, their inability to stand up for the women to others who view the women as dirty and vile, and how women are basically a set of sexual organs ready for their needs really made me mad. And then how Kolya's desertion story! He spends several pages telling how he deserted. Apparently, the guy canNOT go a few days without sex. He left his post to get laid, but that woman was dead. He tried to go to a ballerina's house to pork her, but her husband was home. And so then he sold all the remaining bread he had to a prostitute. What a guy!! Always thinking with his cock!!

I'm not saying that Kolya and Lev shouldn't have talked about sex. But I felt that 75% of their conversations were about sex. It's just nuts. It has nothing to do with the plot, nothing to do with character building, and nothing to do with deepening their relationship.

But in between these moments where I wanted to kill Kolya and Lev or tell them to shut up, Benioff would paint a picture of life in the 1940's in Leningrad. The search in Leningrad for the chicken. Finding out the chicken was a rooster (that was pretty funny!). The march out of the city to find eggs. Hearing the story of the poor Zoya who was punished for trying to leave German imprisonment. The chess game. Benioff is more than capable of crafting a scene, of painting an image.

One of the things I wasn't particularly looking forward to was its focus on World War II. I'm just not a fan of this era, and there are a ton of books out there that focus on characters in this period. But I thought this book had a bit of a twist: it wasn't all gloom and doom, about the horrors of war and the Nazi regime. Sure, we had plenty of that, but there was humor. The chicken-rooster fiasco. The German officer's confusion about the eggs. They imbued the novel with a bit of humor that kept it from being depressing and like every other WWII novel.

Probably the best aspect of this audiobook for me was the narrator, Ron Perlman. He has such a rich voice, and I thought he did the Russian accents fairly decently. It was easy to discern Lev from Kolya. I can't really recall any of his other voices (for the German officer or for Veeka), but I think it most important to make those two characters distinct. And even better, Perlman sings at one point. And you know what? He sounds pretty damn good!

I think your enjoyment of this novel will depend on a few things. Do you like WWII novels? Do you like a bit of black humor? Are you okay with many conversations centering around sex and reducing women to sex toys? If so, then I'm sure you'll enjoy this book, probably more than I did. Not saying that I hated the book, but I definitely won't be rereading it any time soon. Though I might check out more Benioff novels in the future.(less)

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Sep 15, 2008 Alfonso rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes a fast moving read.

Recommended to Alfonso by: Vroman's Bookstore

Shelves: fiction

The author did a great job in telling the story. Some authors will overdue the work by trying to do too much with the plot and the language. Benioff keeps it simply and moving.

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Aug 14, 2012 Armand rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-mod-lit-fic, read-2012, read-me-again, source-indy-bookstore

Reading City of Thieves is a bit like getting to know a brilliant drunkard, someone who has poetry at their fingertips and who has experienced sorrow, and euphoria, and who has a passion for life, but also someone who is slightly out of control, teetering and tottering down the street, incapable of refraining from cursing a vulgar, potty-mouthed blue streak. Yes, it's quite a book.

Here is my brief, non-spoilery plot summary: Lev, a scrappy Russian Jew with a tough history, and Kolya, an arrogant...more Reading City of Thieves is a bit like getting to know a brilliant drunkard, someone who has poetry at their fingertips and who has experienced sorrow, and euphoria, and who has a passion for life, but also someone who is slightly out of control, teetering and tottering down the street, incapable of refraining from cursing a vulgar, potty-mouthed blue streak. Yes, it's quite a book.

Here is my brief, non-spoilery plot summary: Lev, a scrappy Russian Jew with a tough history, and Kolya, an arrogant but charming army deserter, hunt across Leningrad at the height of the German siege to find a dozen fresh eggs. It's basically impossible. If they fail, they're dead men.

The plot works well, and with David Benioff also being a screen writer, he keeps things moving along at a smart pace. Terrible threats, uncertainty, possible love interest, and tiny bits of hope all threaten to carry away Lev, our pessimistic and worried protagonist. Kolya- his traveling companion- is Lev's alter ego, charming and utterly fearless, at ease with pretty women and psychotic killers. Benioff does a great job of playing the two off of each other. It's interesting as I think about it; Hollywood churns out buddy movies by the dozen, but there aren't too many "buddy-books", and yet City of Thieves manages to pull off being an incredible buddy book.

Besides the main characters, Benioff does a fabulous job of tackling the history of the moment. St. Petersburg- aka Piter- is a major character in this book as well. Benioff successfully articulates the suffering, the cold, and the hunger of this "city of ghosts" under siege.

Finally, there is the issue of war itself. I think that Benioff does a good job of balancing things out. He is not so adamantly antiwar as Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughter-House-Five) or Joseph Heller (Catch-22), he knows that the Russians were defending their country, but he's also not afraid of framing the absurdities, the insanity, and indefensible cruelties of war. In short, I think he does a good job of maintaining perspective.

If this book were an animal, it would be a drunken fairy tale swan. One that can talk and who wears a crown. A Royal and regal thing, but out of its element, stuck on a river of ice, tripping over its big, rubbery feet (it would rather swim) and cursing and laughing at its own fate, downing vodka.

If this book were drink, it would be "Seven Layers of Sin" which is the name that Kolya gives to some wood grain vodka that he purchases during the siege. This wood alcohol, the man from whom they buy it explains, is perfectly safe if first poured through a handkerchief folded seven times over.

As a warning: Set as it is in extreme and desperate times, City of Thieves contains a lot of graphic language (including intimate descriptions of sex acts, and genitalia, and excrement) and descriptions of seriously nasty violence. Not recommended for folks who don't like these kinds of nasty descriptions.
(less)

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Jun 30, 2012 Dem rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, recommended, war

Having read and loved Child 44this book was recommended to me by a friend and he was spot on in his recommendation as I loved this Novel.

The siege of Leningrad lasted from August 1941 to January 1944 and resulted in an unknown death toll which included around one million citizens.

This is the story of Lev Beniov, who was jailed for looting the body of a dead Nazi paratrooper who landed in the city. He is sent to Jail where he meets with a young and confident soldier called Kolya who is jailed as...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Clif Hostetler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is a well written historical novel that describes the adventures of some young Russians during the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Needless to say, it was not a good time for humanity. But if you want to tell a story of life and death, a time that concentrates the mind, you tell a story of war. There is an element of humor scattered throughout the telling of the story, but there’s nothing funny. The seriousness of the horrible actions of inhumanity are so bad that the story has to b...more

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Aug 15, 2012 notgettingenough rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, modern-lit, games

False starts

(1) He uses the ‘as if’ simile all the time. What is the point of this odious practice and from where did it spring? Is it because writers think we are idiots or because they don’t have the skill to write it in another way? This one is p. 2 of the story proper and really gave me the pip:

That time of year the sun lingers in the sky for only six hours, scurrying from hoizon to horizon as if spooked.

That piece of smartarsery almost had me put the book on the ‘moving along right now she...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2009

CITY OF THIEVES BY DAVID BENIOFF: From David Benioff, author of The 25th Hour and screenwriter for The Kite Runner, comes an original tale of adventure, laughter, and ongoing mystery set against the backdrop off World War II and the Siege of Leningrad. City of Thieves is a fast-paced, enjoyable book that will have you telling your friends about it.

Lev Beniov is a Leningrad local, fondly referring to the city of his birth as Piter after Petersburg. Left to fend for himself with some friends, he s...more

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Jan 29, 2009 Sharon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was so afraid this book would be unbearably grim. I mean, come on, it's the siege of Leningrad, everyone's starving to death, and it's only 1941--the war will just go on and on. Nazis. Russian winter. Are there any OTHER ingredients for grimness in a book.

But this book strikes the perfect balance of brutality and joy. It's all about Kolya, of course, one of those over-the-top characters who is always doing something nonsensical that works out just fine. I won't say he carries the book, because...more

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Sep 20, 2008 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-books

This unusual story of two teenage boys who are given an impossible task to complete in the middle of a Russian winter during the German siege of Leningrad grabbed my attention on page one and never let it go. Almost like two innocents in a dark fairy tale, Lev (small and dark) and Kolya (tall and blond) encounter cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they trudge across the forbidding frozen landscape absurdly in search of mythical eggs(no one has seen an egg since the siege began)f...more

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Jun 21, 2008 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in literary fiction, historical fiction, or World War II.

I literally could not put this book down. I started it one night and stayed up much too late to finish it the next. (My poor husband kept asking me to turn off the light, and I kept telling him, "One more page, one more page.") I had almost no knowledge of this period of history, but Benioff brings it to life in a way that's compelling and moving. I never knew what was going to happen next. The characters are unique and richly drawn, full of dark humor and life. In other words, though the book's...more

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About David Benioff

David Benioff worked as a nightclub bouncer in San Francisco, a radio DJ in Wyoming and an English teacher/wrestling coach in Brooklyn before selling his first novel, The 25th Hour, in 2000.

He later wrote the screenplay for Spike Lee’s adaptation of Hour starring Edward Norton and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. In 2005, Viking Press published Benioff’s collection of short stories, When the Nines Roll Ov...more

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The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film

When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories

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Quotes from City of Thieves

“I've always envied people who sleep easily. Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.” — 474 people liked it

“Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful; when you're with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence; your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she will leave you for good. One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you.” — 112 people liked it

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