reviewed By Ro Bennett on 5th august for recorded bookshow
My youngest son, Daniel suggested I read this book.
I studied the Holocaust at University, so tend not to read anything about war
and its cruelty and deprivation anymore. This book is pretty grim but it is a
gripping page turner and has elements of humour and feel good aspects which make
it more bearable. I thought it was based on a true story, but apparently in a
conversation Penguin books had with the author, he said that it is a work of
pure fiction. David
Benioff said that he did end up reading dozens of books on the Siege of
Leningrad, mainly The Nine Hundred Days by Harrison Salisbury who was the first
Western journalist to have access to Leningrad once the siege was lifted. Mr
Harrison spoke first hand with hundreds of Russians who survived the siege, and
he collected as many diaries, journals, and letters as he could. Therefore, City
of Thieves has an authentic touch.
The story begins when 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 realises
it is something his grandson needs to know about. So he talks mainly about two
weeks in the beginning of 1942, when two young men embark an impossible
mission, trying to survive against desperate odds.
Lev Beniov is a Jewish lad whose father, a poet,
has been ‘disappeared’ by the authorities because of his controversial writing.
Before the war, eleven hundred people lived in the Kirov. By New Year’s Eve, the
number was closer to four hundred. Lev’s mother and sister fled to Vyasma to
stay with an uncle, before the Germans closed the circle and besieged the city.
She begged Lev to go too, but he refused. He wants to stay to defend the city.
Too young for the army, Lev spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter
with friends from his building. When a dead German paratrooper lands in his
street, Lev is caught looting the body and is dragged off to jail. He shares his
cell with Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion charges.
Dawn brings, instead of
an execution squad, an impossible challenge. Lev and Kolya can find a dozen eggs
for an NKVD colonel to use for his daughter's wedding cake, and live - or, since
their vital ration books are
confiscated, if they fail in their attempt, they will die.
In the depths of the coldest winter in history,
through a city cut off from all supplies and suffering appalling deprivation,
man and boy embark on an absurd hunt. Their search will take them through
desolate, lawless Leningrad and the devastated countryside surrounding it.
They encounter
dangerous people even more desperate than themselves. Eventually, they have to
leave the city and venture into the German-occupied countryside, where they get
caught up with a band of partisans intent on killing the commander of an
Einsatzgruppen.
It’s a nerve wracking book and you never know the
fate of some of the characters which is what happens in war. It was a well
written and memorable book and well worth reading. But it will haunt you
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