City of Thieves (novel)

City of Thieves is a historical fiction novel by David Benioff. Both a coming of age story and a comedy, City of Thieves recounts the adventures of two young adults in Leningrad as they search for a carton of eggs for an NKVD colonel during the Nazi siege of the city during World War II.^[1][2]

Plot

The story as introduced is the recollections of a contemporary Russian émigré living in Florida. Seventeen year old Lev Beniov lives alone in an apartment in Leningrad, (which the narrator refers to as "Piter," the nickname residents use for their city) as his poet father was recently abducted by the secret police and his mother and sister have fled the besieged city. Lev is arrested for looting the body of an ejected Luftwaffe pilot. Sent to the Crosses prison, Lev meets Kolya Vlasov, a young soldier arrested for deserting his unit. Though just three years older than Lev, Kolya is more cultured and refined than Lev.

Lev and Kolya are brought to an NKVD colonel who barters with the two: if they are able to obtain a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's upcoming wedding, the two will be given their freedom. If they are unable to find the eggs, a luxury during the impoverished siege years, both will lose their lives. Lev and Kolya seek out the eggs, and in the meantime come across an assorted cast of characters, including cannibals, Nazi sex slaves, and a group of Russian partisans. Eventually, Lev and Kolya allow themselves to be taken prisoner within a larger group of captured Russians in order to kill an einsatzgruppen officer and gain the coveted dozen eggs.

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