City of Thieves by David Benioff

Once again, I’ve dipped into my wife’s stack of books, from one of her book clubs, and I’ve found another winner. This one is currently on the New York Times Bestseller list. The action starts out and ends during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. The main action is between two men who are thrown together due to the war, one a deserter from the Russian army, the other a 17 year-old civilian who chose to stay behind in Leningrad rather than flee the city with his mother and sister before the Germans encircled the town. The author novelizes a story that he knew from his grandparents. He has some facts and filled in the rest with a very good story. Lev is the character representing the author’s grandfather, and the story is told from Lev’s perspective. Lev’s companion, the deserter and would-be novelist, is Kolya, a man whose sexual exploits and appetites are his own constant preoccupation. What starts out as a search for eggs somewhere in Leningrad morphs into a hunt for a German commandant who is the responsible for the murders of thousands of Russians. The prose in this book is far superior to what we usually read, and the plot line is equally good.

WC Don