Incredible Journey
City of Thieves
By David Benioff
272 pages. Viking.
It has the bizarre logic of a fairy tale: Two mismatched companions embark on a perilous journey to perform a virtually impossible task. David Benioff's City of Thieves (Viking) is set during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, a time of desperation when the glue on the spine of a book takes the place of a meal, and cannibalistic ogres roam the streets. How Lev, a gawky Jewish teenager, and Kolya, his strutting sidekick, salvage their humanity—as elusive a treasure as the farm-fresh eggs that could ransom their lives—makes this novel, with all its wartime horrors, as heartening as survival itself.
By David Benioff
272 pages. Viking.
It has the bizarre logic of a fairy tale: Two mismatched companions embark on a perilous journey to perform a virtually impossible task. David Benioff's City of Thieves (Viking) is set during the Nazi siege of Leningrad, a time of desperation when the glue on the spine of a book takes the place of a meal, and cannibalistic ogres roam the streets. How Lev, a gawky Jewish teenager, and Kolya, his strutting sidekick, salvage their humanity—as elusive a treasure as the farm-fresh eggs that could ransom their lives—makes this novel, with all its wartime horrors, as heartening as survival itself.
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