City of Thieves

A Novel

By: David Benioff

Narrated by: Ron Perlman

From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival — and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.

During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, the New York Times bestseller City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.©2008 David Benioff; (P)2008 Penguin

Critic reviews

“The novel tells a refreshingly traditional tale, driven by an often ingenious plot . . . [Benioff] shifts tone with perfect control—no recent novel I have read travels so quickly and surely between registers, from humor to devastation.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“This spellbinding story perfectly blends tragedy and comedy.”
—USA Today

“Splendid . . . Benioff has produced a funny, sad, and thrilling novel.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Benioff (a co-creator of HBO’s “Game of Thrones”) peppers his swift-moving plot with pitch-dark humor and unexpected turns. It’s a rousing reading experience, to cackle aloud at one paragraph then gasp at the next. . . . I’m glad I waited until warm weather to start this winter’s tale. But really, any other time would have been just fine. There’s no bad season to read a book this good.”
—Ken Jaworowski, The New York Times Book Review

“Benioff blends humor and horror expertly.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A deft storyteller, Benioff writes about starvation, cannibalism, and Nazi atrocities with poise and cinematic flair. If Thieves were a movie, it would start out like Schindler’s List and end up like Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
—People

"City of Thieves is a coming-of-age story brilliantly amplified by its worn-torn backdrop . . . Benioff’s finest achievement in "City of Thieves" has been to banish all possible pretensions from his novel, which never wears its research on its sleeve, and to deliver a rough-and-tumble tale that clenches humor, savagery, and pathos squarely together on the same page."
—The Washington Post

“City of Thieves is flat-out great . . . Benioff’s screen writing chops are in full force here - the plot careens along with cinematic verve - but that’s expected. The surprise is Benioff’s understated wisdom and tenderness.”
—Men’s Journal

“David Benioff, has written a gripping war novel. With lots of humour, suspense and tragedy he shows the desperate lives of the people who were caught between two opposing forces during the Second World War.”
—The Guardian

Beautiful Book

Because so much has been written about this book, I just want to note that it is everything that its supporters say it is. I found the ending touching, without being overly sentimental or maudlin. The author is a talented writer and the narrative proceeds swifly and economically. It would be difficult not to be taken with the two main characters, and the WWII Leningrad locale lends historical interest to the novel.

The narration was excellent and added greatly to my enjoyment. The length was perfect for the intermittent listening that I do. An altogether satisfying listening experience.

Fabulous, a real pleasure

great narrator, good solid story never flags. devotees of WWII and cold war thrillers will like the taste; like a good solid modern Russian WWII DVD movie.

Unforgettable Historical Adventure

What could have been just another book about WWII turned out to be a wonderful historical fiction, rich with human drama and relationships. The story is about 2 men, who were thrown together in one prison cell during the siege of Leningrad. Lev, a young Jewish looter who stole a Nazi's knife, and Kolya a Russian deserter. These men were supposed to be shot in the morning but were given an ultimatum to save their own lives. Kolya is funny, courageous, very smart, over sexed and a risk taker. Lev on the other hand is an inexperienced, meek young boy of 17, who has no choice but to follow Kolya on their obscure journey to find a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. In a time when food is practically non-existent, and some have even resorted to cannibalism, these two men must find eggs. Their journey takes them on a perilous adventure, risking their lives every step of the way.
The exuberant personalities of Lev and Kolya were warm and rich, juxtaposed to the cold winter war full of Nazi horrors and despair. The book depicts perfectly the chilling atrocities of war while all the while you are enjoying yourself listening to the antics of Kolya, who in today's world I believe would have been a very successful sales man. The raw language and descriptions, which may offend some, adds authenticity to the story. There is no question this is a far-fetched tale, but what an incredible journey. The story could have benefited from being a bit longer with more historical background. Definitely one of my favorites.
Ron Perlman, the narrator does an excellent job narrating. His deep, slow purposeful voice is perfect for the characters, especially Kolya.

A beautiful, wonderful book

I tremendously enjoyed everything about this book. It is funny and exciting, yet emotionally involving. A coming of age story set in wartime. The narration by Ron Perlman was excellent. I wish the book was longer.

Good WWII story

Since I depend on readers comments, I leave my comments for all the book I read.

This was a great portrayal of WWII story in Russia, Well written and well paced. It's a good novel about human hardship in it's worst times.

The Perfect Book Narrated by the Perfect Narrator

If you like Russian humor, eggs, war stories, Hellboy and Game of Thrones, and have never listened to an audiobook before, you should probably lose your audio virginity to The City of Thieves by David Benioff, read by Ron Flipping Perlman.

It’s World War II, and the Nazis have sieged Leningrad. Two young Russian prisoners form an unlikely friendship when a powerful colonel offers them freedom if they can procure a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake.

It's a perfect book narrated by the perfect reader. Benioff, who is the co-creator of Game of Thrones on HBO, perfects the ratio of pathos, drama, comedy, dialogue and gore. The City of Thieves is a buddy comedy, love story, World War II epic and Russian literary history all rolled up into one. It's meta. It's action-packed. It's poetry. It works on every level. Best yet, it's meant to be performed and Ron Perlman, the man behind Hellboy, is the perfect guy for the job.

You can tell when I really super loved a book, because that's when I get all tongue tied and speechless. So I'm going to shut up about this now. 5,000 stars. The end.

Powerful

When Adolf Hitler’s armies laid siege to the Soviet city of Leningrad on September 8, 1941, he was so confident of winning that he had invitations printed to a victory party in the city’s Hotel Astoria. The blockade was broken 872 days later, in early 1944. In between, it had become among the most cruel and destructive in the history of human warfare.

Two boys, aged 17 and 20, are sent out for a dozen eggs. One is a Jewish youth, Lev Beniov, accused of looting, and the other a young soldier suspected of desertion. It’s a sort of scavenger hunt, but they are sent by an icy NKVD colonel who will kill them if they fail. Their ordeal will carry them across the bombed-out city, where both chickens and eggs have long since disappeared, and into the frozen countryside, crawling with Nazi troops.

They canvass the usual places and encounter grim characters. “The boy sold what people called ‘library candy,’ made from tearing the covers off of books, peeling off the binding glue, boiling it down, and reforming it into bars you could wrap in paper. The stuff tasted like wax, but there was protein in the glue. Protein kept you alive, and the city’s books were disappearing, like the pigeons.”

When the two search for eggs at the Haymarket, a giant man lures them to a bleak and boarded-up apartment. The man’s wife is at work with a cleaver, supplying customers at the market with meat, but the hanging meat they glimpse is human limbs, and the ribcage of a baby, and they narrowly escape with their lives. (There were reliable reports of cannibalism in the siege of Leningrad.)

David Benioff is capable of enthralling prose. He also has a screenwriter’s gift of pacing and surprise as events unfold, mixing gallows humor with true, brutal horror.

As Lev summarizes: “The days had become a confusion of catastrophes. What seemed impossible in the afternoon was blunt fact by the evening. German corpses fell from the sky. Cannibals sold sausage links made from ground human in the Haymarket. Apartment blocks collapsed to the ground. Dogs became bombs. Frozen soldiers became signposts. A partisan with half a face stood swaying in the snow, staring sad-eyed at his killers. I had no food in my belly, no fat on my bones, and no energy to reflect on this parade of atrocities.”

In the end, it is a novel that is by turns nearly slapstick, horrific, sweet, and ineffably tragic, even when it's over. “Those of us who lived through the siege by habit stayed on the south sidewalk, though no shells had landed for nearly two years.”

Those who most associate narrator Ron Perlman with the “Hellboy” movie character will be pleasantly surprised. His MFA is showing, along with a career in the theater, films, and even video games. He brings a subtle, powerful, yet understated sensitivity to the work that couldn’t be more perfect, and I’ll be anxious to hear more from him.

best book of the last 100 ive listened to

great story about The Siege of Leningrad two prisoners giving the task of finding a dozen eggs for a colonel or be executed. fantastic story with many twists. at first I did not appreciate the gravelly voice of the reader but as the story progressed his narration of the characters was excellent. couldn't stop listening to this book

A fantastic novel

If you can get past some graphically violent images, this is a well written, well researched book with a compelling story. I am a former tournament chess player, and so I appreciated the fact that even the chess in this book clearly comes from either actual deep experience with the game or good research.

Best book I've listened to so far in 2017

Gives a real sense of what life during the siege of Leningrad might have been like through an adventure that is in turns thrilling, funny, horrifying, and ultimately satisfying.