A review by the_gush
City of Thieves by David Benioff

5.0

I loved this book because it was spare and sharp and entertaining and heartbreaking all at once. This story of two unlikely comrades on an impossible quest to find a dozen eggs during the siege of Leningrad combines a coming-of-age storyline with elements of a Russian fairy tale, all steeped in the unimaginable horrors of WWII. Suitably grim as befits a WWII story, yet with moments of levity (no pun intended!), every scene had a purpose. It's this artful combination of narrative economy and compelling entertainment that impresses, even while it is difficult to comprehend the inhumanity that fuels the war machine. I also liked the framing device wherein the reader understands that this book is based upon the likely experiences of David Benioff's grandfather (or not; after all it's fiction -- hinting towards metafiction).