Jake F, City of Thieves

City of Thieves

By David Benioff

Genre: Historical Fiction

Just Right

Pg. 119

1) Right now, Kolya and Lev, having both been arrested and given orders to set out to find 12 eggs in the city of Leningrad, Russia which is under siege by the Nazis, making it a near impossible task. So far they’ve tried bargaining on the black market of the city, bargaining for a chicken, both of which failed miserably. Early in the morning they set off for Mga, a farm town 50 kilometers east, past the German lines, in hope of finding some eggs at a friend’s uncle’s farm. At the moment the sun is setting and they’re probably three quarters of the way there.

2) So far this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I like how instead of taking 30 pages to settle into the plot by explaining so unnecessarily explaining the setting, he jumps into the plot and drops in the setting and background on the way. The build up has been really interesting and exciting, without being overly dramatic too.

3) One theme I’ve noticed so far is the will to live. Many of the people in the city are sincerely wondering why they need to be there, their families are gone, their friends are gone. Why should they have to suffer through this? It’s most easily seen when Lev and Kolya go to bargain with the old man for his chicken and instead find a boy, with the last chicken held to his chest and the old man dead on the ground, frozen to death. When they bargain with the boy, he says he’s not hungry, when in reality everyone in that town is starving. In the end they give him 300 rubles and 2 sausages, but I have a feeling they went to waste sitting on his lap.

4) My favorite character is Lev, he’s definitely still alive against the odds and he is there to help the city in whatever way he can. He’s not always optimistic either, but he is always focused on whatever the goal may be, which is what you have to do to survive in Leningrad.

5) My least favorite character is the colonel’s daughter, who is having a wedding in the middle of all of this and is having a cake. From all the extra food she receives, just the cake ingredients previously collected would feed an apartment building for 2 weeks and yet she’s sending people off to fetch her eggs. Yes, it kept both Kolya and Lev alive, because they would both have been executed, but her selfishness is exactly what would pull a city apart these circumstances.

6) I believe Kolya and Lev will reach Mga successfully and find some eggs, but not the dozen required.