City of Thieves

David Benioff through his novel City of Thieves gives us a vivid and empathetic view of the suffering unto starvation of the city of Leningrad during its siege by the German army in World War II. All the grimness and horror, physical and political, are there. Yet the story line cleverly moderates this without there being lack of harmony. Death and humor live side by side without getting in the way of the other and are complimentary. The characterization is outstanding as is the description of living a life with severe deadly food scarcity. So there is a story here worth ones time even ignoring a weak ending.

Quotes: (page 34) “One summer afternoon in 1937 they took my father from the offices of the literary magazine where he worked. show more They never gave him back. The call from the Moscow office never came for him; rehabilitation was not an option. An intelligence officer might hold future value for the state, but a decadent poet did not. He might have died in the Crosses or in Siberia or somewhere in between, we never learned, there is no marker; if he was burned, there is no urn.”

(pages 51-52) “Kolya smiled at the man and waited for a response. There was nothing behind Kolya's blue eyes, neither fear nor anger nor excitement about the prospect of a fight---nothing. This, I came to learn, was his gift: danger made him calm. Around him people would deal with their terror in the usual ways: stoicism, hysteria, false joviality, or some combination of the three. But Kolya, I think, never completely believed in any of it. Everything about the war was ridiculous: the Germans' barbarity, the People's propaganda, the crossfire of incendiary bullets that lit the nighttime sky. It all seemed to him like someone else's story that he had stumbled into and now could not escape.”

(page 63) “There was only on way to talk. You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen. If you opened the door even a centimeter, you would smell the rot and hear the screams. You did not open the door. You kept your mind on the tasks of the day, the hunt for food and water and something to burn, and you saved the rest for the end of the war.”

(page 107) “We marched through the woods, through then open fields of cold sunshine, keeping the train tracks visible to our left. The snow was hard packed, scattered with pine needles, decent for walking. We were in German-controlled territory, but there was no indication of a German presence, no sign at all of war. I was strangely happy. Piter was my home, but Piter was a graveyard now, a city of ghosts and cannibals.”

(page 167) “Far more common, though,was the reaction of disdainful silence, nobody willing to meet the poet's eye, to feign interest in the subject matter, or halfheartedly compliment the use of a jaunty metaphor. When a reading failed, the poet new it quickly. He would down his glass of alcohol, the red flush of shame spreading across his face as he wiped his mouth dry with his sleeve and shuffled off to the far side of the apartment, taking great interest in the books on my father's bookshelves---Balzac and Stendhal, Yeats and Baudelaire. The defeated man would leave the party soon, but leaving too quickly would seem like bad sportsmanship, a sulking form of cowardliness, so he would wait an agonizing twenty minutes while everyone around him studiously avoided mentioning the poem, as if it were a brutal fart that no one was rude enough to acknowledge.” show less

How can you set a novel in the midst of one of the most prolonged tragic events in history and not make it depressing? Make it a buddy/road-trip novel. Essentially that’s what this is and despite its grim circumstances it is an emotionally rewarding novel. There is just enough foreshadowing to eliminate some surprises and so what would be a complete downer of an ending is blunted. The truly horrific details, such as those surrounding the farmhouse of girls, are muted by good winning battles along the way in the war. There is also an abundance of ribald humor and a whiff of the ridiculous in the mission itself. All conspire to make this an emotionally engaging novel in a positive way.

Every time I read about extreme privations I remind show more myself of them at times of self-pity. Even though this novel is full of them, and the violent and desperate measures to combat them, it’s not a downer. Kolya is a huge and vibrant character and the perfect foil for Lev, who is more subdued and in awe of Kolya’s sheer nerve. That’s not to say the Lev is always made to seem less interesting or valuable. In one particular instance Kolya ignores Lev’s streetwise advice and they are both nearly killed. Later he remembers this incident and let’s Lev’s instincts prevail. That situation turns out better and is a very good lead into the next important circumstance; life with the Partisans.

This is not to say this novel makes light of the Siege of Leningrad. It doesn’t, but neither does it shroud its victims in helplessness and pity. Instead the citizens of Pieter are shown as brave stalwarts against their many enemies. They will not lie down. They will not give in. Propaganda abounds, but people frame their outlook in terms of seeing someone in Berlin on the day of inevitable triumph. They know and understand how to read their government’s propaganda; no illusions here. Even though Stalin was about as racially tolerant as Hitler, the people seem to deal with Russia’s inherent multi-culturalism pretty well.

One thing I would have liked is a bit more information on how this coming of age affected Lev in later life. We see him as an old man at first and then a youngster, but nothing in between. I would have liked to know him in between. But this would have diluted a really riveting story that is perfectly focused and presented.

A word about the narrator – Ron Perlman. He is such a larger than life figure that it was hard to imagine separating his voice from his physical presence. Hellboy anyone? But after a bit, that faded and the characterization he gave to the parts took over. His delivery was soft and not forced and his facility for languages is excellent. No crazy over-the-top accents to distract. Good job and I hope he does more. show less

Acquiring a dozen eggs has perhaps never been more difficult or dangerous than it is for a Russian teenager during the Nazi siege of Leningrad in David Benioff's pleasurable World War II novel "City of Thieves."

Young Lev Beniov is arrested for looting after he takes a knife off the body of a German paratrooper. He expects to be shot, but instead, he and another prisoner, a personable deserter named Kolya, are given a few days of freedom to try to find eggs for the wedding cake for the daughter of a Soviet colonel.

In the besieged city, there is hardly any food at all, let alone a dozen fresh eggs, so Lev and Kolya leave Leningrad. The Russians in the city don't have eggs, but perhaps someone on the outside does.

In the end, they get the show more eggs from the Nazis, but the real story is how. Along the way, Lev kills his first man and loves his first woman. It's an exciting and surprisingly humorous story that provides pleasure from beginning to end. show less

A great example of popular storytelling, David Benioff's City of Thieves works far better than it should. A novel set during the Siege of Leningrad can be said to lack authenticity when written by a young American rich kid, even before you add in the opening chapter's dubious attempt to frame the tale as a true family history told to "David" by his grandfather Lev "Beniov" (on the contrary, it is completely made-up). The content also turns the stomach: there are elements and scenes of war, starvation, genocide and torture, as well as sex-slaves, dying dogs and plenty of talk of sex and penises and shitting and pissing.

And yet… And yet… It's unbelievably moreish. It's one of those rare stories where you turn each and every page show more completely effortlessly. The dark content shocks and disconcerts without seeming seedy or gratuitous. You recover from such moments by being caught up in the quest: the quest itself might be trivial (amidst the Leningrad famine, our two protagonists, Lev and Kolya, are tasked to find a dozen eggs for a Russian colonel) but the characters are strong and we enjoy their company. The book's most important quality is that its plot feels interactive, almost like a story-rich video game (apparently The Last of Us was inspired by the book). Such an analogy isn't meant to diminish the book, for the writing is good, and a good reader can forgive a writer anything if the writing is good. Rather, it is that your investment in the story goes beyond the success of plot or character but sees you contemplating the characters' predicament alongside them as they encounter various challenges and they strategize and overcome. As minor odysseys go, this is a very entertaining one. show less

Set during the German siege of Leningrad, City of Thieves by David Benioff was a wonderful story about two fellows, one considered a looter, the other a deserter and how they embark upon a quest to find a dozen eggs in the middle of a harsh Russian winter with food at an all time scarcity. Lev is a shy seventeen year old Jew arrested for looting the body of a frozen German solider. Kolya is a Russian soldier caught on the streets after curfew and considered a deserter. They are brought in front of a NKVD colonel who gives them the option of going on an egg hunt for one dozen eggs for his daughters’ wedding cake or being stood up against a wall and shot.

These two main characters couldn’t be more different but throughout the book, show more their bond grows and becomes so real that it was very easy to imagine these two trudging along together. As they seek their treasure, they meet many varied characters, from cannibals to partisans, get into difficulties and manage to fight, run or talk their way through.

This was a book that I literally couldn’t put down. It actually brought me to both laughter and tears. The writing is smart and engaging without becoming too clever to be believable. While the heart of the book is this developing relationship between these two fellows, the backdrop of war is horrifyingly vivid as the characters learn to face down their fears and rely on their inner resources. I found City of Thieves to be a vibrant, rich story that I will long remember. show less

Most books have lulls within their pages - brief sections, little dips and valleys, that may not be as strong as the rest, or for whatever reason, fail to keep the reader's attention from faltering. Even the greatest novels seem to sometimes have these lapses, and maybe it's all within the reader whether the book can hold their attention for the duration - as a reader, I don't really know. I do know this: not once during David Benioff's "City of Thieves" did my attention slip from its pages.
I think that what struck me the most about this story was the fact that Benioff was able to construct a very real, visceral storyline around a completely ridiculous centerpiece - the search for a dozen eggs during the siege of Lenigrad. It is a story show more about the folly, the absurdity, of war, yet at the same time, it is about the horrors of war and the atrocities of men, as well. The writing is very crisp - the fog from the breath of the characters steams off the page - and the dialogue flows from Benioff's pen as though he were transcribing conversations from 60 years ago verbatim. I tend to steer clear of World War II novels - and it was the strength of Benioff's previous book, "When the Nines Roll Over" that forced my hand - but this is more than just simple genre fiction. It is a story of human beings, the way our lives intersect, and how we affect each other in ways no one can predict. show less

Set aside the wartime heroics, the picaresque buddy story which undoubtedly has its roots in Cervantes, the burgeoning of love in mid-winter. Set it all aside and just admit that this is a story about the power of literature to raise us beyond ourselves in order to create something new. In the prologue to City of Thieves, David Benioff’s grandfather, in response to his grandson’s importuning questions about his time during the siege of Leningrad, exhorts him: “’David,’ he said. ‘You’re a writer. Make it up.’” It’s good advice. And also lucky for us as readers because the story he goes on to make up is compelling, thoughtful, witty, and tragic. In short--brilliant!

Teenager Lev Beniov is forcibly paired with Kolya show more Vlasov, a verbose private from the Red Army who has inadvertently gone AWOL. Colonel Grechko tasks them with securing a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. They can find the eggs or die. Of course since they need to find these eggs in the besieged city of Leningrad, whose inhabitants have been starving for the past ten months, both options look to amount to the same. Fortunately Kolya considers their being alive to be already an improbability, so they might as well get on with the task.

Kolya leads Lev from one adventure to another in the few days they have been given to complete their task. Along the way they debate Russian literature from Goncharov’s Oblomov to Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Relevancies abound but are never laboured. Benioff maintains a light touch that keeps the action to the forefront and lets the erudition coast along in the wake. It lets the story be enjoyed on many levels at the same time. This is ‘making it up’ the right way. Highly recommended. show less