City of Thieves

A Novel

By: David Benioff

Narrated by: Ron Perlman

Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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 best seller 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)

Amazing!

One of my most favorites reads recently. Sad. Funny. Touching. Wonderfully narrated. A must listen!

So good that I’m mad it’s over

I’m mad and sad that I’ll never be able to read this again for the 1st time.
It’s so funny and so dark. Great absurd adventure, great characters, great comedy and tragedy.
I didn’t need the musical interludes and flourishes — only once did I feel it really added something to the story.
Narrator does a beautiful job. One of my very favorite audiobooks and I have some dear favorites

Great story!

Ron Pearlman does a great job bringing you into Benioff’s Stalingrad during the Nazi siege. I cannot imagine the cold and scarcity of food, clothing and housing. What strength these Russians showed.

I loved it

Great story, wonderful narration. This story will stay with me for a long time !!
Can’t recommend it enough

Wow

I was skeptical of a fictional war memoir seeing as how many amazing real life stories are out there but hearing the rave reviews for this book I gave it a shot anyway. It didn't disappoint! The storytelling is excellent, the characters are vivid, and Clay Morrow's..ahem, Ron Perlman's reading of the book is spot on! There are so many gripping moments throughout that pull you right in as if you're right in the middle of it all. Highly recommend.

Ron Perlman's voice is bad A (which means good)

I first listened by myself, then a second time with my husband. Benioff's piercing tale of the Leningrad Blockade from the perspective of a boy who is eager to become a man is one I will keep with me always. I laughed, squirmed, clenched, cried and braved my way through as if I too had to personally deliver a dozen eggs not knowing if I had the courage or luck to do so.

tender story difficult time loved it

compelling story of friendship and love beautifully read those are the parts i wish true

What a pleasant surprise.

This book was very good but the narrator made it a great listen! His accents were believable and not overdone. This was a very pleasant surprise and I was sorry it ended.

a good one

First time author for me. World War II was a major event with a lot of different aspects to it. There have been lots of books written about the war and sometimes I wonder if all the angles have been looked at and written about. Yet this book is a tale like none other that I've read or listened to. It seems the Rubik's Cube of stories from the war will just keep coming.

First off, the setting is Leningrad/St Petersburg early in the war when the city was under siege by the German army. The Germans were trying to starve the Russians out, everybody was hungry, it was cold, the Germans were bombing every night. It was a tough existence.

The story starts when a group of teenagers that all lived on the same floor of an apartment building are out and about and see something floating down from the sky. It turns out to be a German soldier that evidently had parachuted and died due to the extreme cold coming down. The kids take everything off of him they can and the hero of the story, Lev, gets a knife with 'Blood and Honor' written on the hilt. Then some Russian soldiers discover them and they take off running. He stops to help Vera over the last wall after she's fallen, she gets free and he gets arrested as a looter. He's taken to a prison and instead of being shot he's taken to an NKVD colonel, along with another guy, a so called deserter, and the colonel challenges them with coming up with a dozen eggs in time for his daughter's wedding the next weekend. The bulk of the story is the tale of them finding the eggs.

The story is quite creative. By the end you are totally caught up in the characters. You want them to succeed but even more just survive. The Germans and the Russians were bent on destroying each other, the Russians saying they would never give up and they never did.

This is the best audiobook I've ever heard. Ever.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

YES - It's not just a tremendous story, but Ron Perlman does a masterful job narrating it.

What other book might you compare City of Thieves to and why?

I can't even put my head around it - it's so good in it's in a class all of it's own.