City of Thieves
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ron Perlman
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By:
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David Benioff
About this listen
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 PenguinListeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Two unlikely young men charged with desertion and facing execution in the besieged city of Leningrad are charged with an impossible task: they can have their freedom if they can find a dozen eggs for the wedding cake of a powerful colonel's daughter. The two make an odd couple: one a scrawny Jewish outsider, the other an erudite charmer, and their journey takes them from the war-torn city to the snow-covered countryside. Sound like the basis of a classic movie? That might be because the author, David Benioff, is a successful screenwriter, and City of Thieves is halfway between movie-script and roman-a-clef, between airport blockbuster and serious literature.
It's a difficult balancing act, but it succeeds here in no small part due to Ron Perlman's unforgettable narration. His voice is as full of character as his celebrated face, and his bar-room drawl brings a hard-boiled noir quality to the narration. It's a voice dripping in contraband and cordite, easily navigating the Russian names and injecting a sly, seductive humor into the dialogue that offsets the occasional lapse into sentimentality. It's a fantastic performance that succeeds in tying together the disparate elements of this rich tale.
Perlman also takes great relish in conveying the myriad of tiny details that Benioff weaves into the narrative, and which lend a cinematic quality to the work. Indeed, the author's screenwriting background is evident throughout: there's a tightly-constructed plot that never loses a sense of forward propulsion, even during the quieter moments; there is a skilful interweaving of film-school tropes the buddy movie, the coming-of-age tale, the WWII film. And there's that attention to detail. Although Benioff has clearly done his research, it's the off-beat imagery that brings to life the reality of living in a besieged city: concrete dragon's teeth are arranged to hinder the approach of enemy tanks; leather boots still bloody from the feet of the previous owners; malnourished children's bones break easily.
A slightly superfluous framing narrative alerts us to the novel's more literary aspirations. The art of storytelling is central to this tale, and the narrative brims over with literary references: doomed poets, scabrous novelists, callous propagandists. The picaresque plot recalls A Hero of Our Time, and the main action begins with a German parachutist's corpse drifting down the empty streets, an image halfway between a movie storyboard and Lord of the Flies just one of many evocative set-pieces in this highly entertaining adventure. Dafydd Phillips
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)
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American lawyer and former police detective Judge Devlin is in Europe sifting through evidence of Nazi atrocities. He is part of the International Military Tribunal, but his agenda is personal. He hopes to convict SS member and former Olympic sprinter Eric Seyss, the man responsible for his military chaplain brother’s death. When Judge learns Eric has just escaped from an American POW camp, the American sets off in a desperate race for vengeance.
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this story just went on and on and on
- By Stevie on 09-07-12
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The Dutch Wife
- By: Ellen Keith
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Eric Martin, Charlie Thurston
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Amsterdam, May 1943. As the Nazis tighten their grip across the city, the last signs of Dutch resistance are being swept away. Marijke de Graaf and her husband are arrested and deported to different concentration camps in Germany. Marijke is given a terrible choice: to suffer a slow death in the labor camp or - for a chance at survival - join the camp brothel. On the other side of the barbed wire, SS Officer Karl Müller arrives at the camp hoping to meet his father’s expectations of wartime glory. When he encounters the newly arrived Marijke, their lives change forever.
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Holocaust Porn???
- By Peteylovesyou on 08-03-19
By: Ellen Keith
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Velva Jean Learns to Drive
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Niven
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in Appalachia in the years before World War II, Velva Jean Learns to Drive is a poignant story of a spirited young girl growing up in the gold-mining and moonshining South. Before she dies, Velva Jean's mother urges her to "live out there in the great wide world." Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville until she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher.
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If Jenna Lamia reads it, I'll listen to it!
- By Susan on 12-17-09
By: Jennifer Niven
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Eye of the Red Tsar
- A Novel of Suspense
- By: Sam Eastland
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, the imprisoned family of Tsar Nicholas Romanov was awakened and led down to the basement of the Ipatiev house. There they were summarily executed. A decade later, one man lives in purgatory, banished to a forest on the outskirts of humanity. Pekkala was once the most trusted secret agent of the Romanovs, the right-hand man of the Tsar himself. Now he is Prisoner 4745-P. But the state needs Pekkala one last time.
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Wow What a Book
- By Sara on 07-31-14
By: Sam Eastland
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I, Who Did Not Die
- A Sweeping Story of Loss, Redemption, and Fate
- By: Zahed Haftlang, Najah Aboud
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Khorramshahr, Iran, May 1982 - It was the bloodiest battle of one of the most brutal wars of the twentieth century, and Najah, a 29-year-old wounded Iraqi conscript, was face to face with a 13-year-old Iranian child soldier who was ordered to kill him. Instead, the boy committed an astonishing act of mercy. It was an act that decades later would save his own life.
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- By jennie on 04-10-24
By: Zahed Haftlang, and others
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The Survivors
- By: Kate Furnivall
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter, Alicja, have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home. But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter. She knows his real identity. What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?
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Really interesting
- By Karen on 11-10-18
By: Kate Furnivall
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Zombies: More Recent Dead
- By: Neil Gaiman, Carrie Vaughn, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and others
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt, Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The living dead are more alive than ever! Zombies have become more than an iconic monster for the 21st century: They are now a phenomenon constantly revealing as much about ourselves - and our fascination with death, resurrection, and survival - as our love for the supernatural or post-apocalyptic speculation. Our most imaginative literary minds have been devoured by these incredible creatures and produced exciting, insightful, and unflinching new works of zombie fiction.
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A well blended mix
- By The Lone Mopper on 07-30-15
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
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Going After Cacciato
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato, a classic novel of Vietnam, captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked that strangest of wars. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris.
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Shadow Sculpture Built out of War's Debris
- By Darwin8u on 05-16-14
By: Tim O'Brien
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Now and in the Hour of Our Death
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Patrick Taylor’s first novel of the Irish Troubles, Pray for Us Sinners, introduced us to Provisional IRA bombmaker Davy MacCutcheon and the love of his life, Fiona Kavanagh. Davy planned to leave the Provos after one final mission. But the deadly mission backfired, and Davy ended up in prison. Six years later, in Now and in the Hour of Our Death, Fiona Kavanagh has found sanctuary in Vancouver, Canada. But news of a breakout at the Maze prison brings back memories she thought she’d left behind.
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The Perfect End of a Great Epic
- By J. Lindsey on 03-01-15
By: Patrick Taylor
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Nocturne
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is Warsaw, 1939, and Elzunia is an indulged teenager who longs for a heroic life filled with romance. But the outbreak of war shatters all her dreams. As bombs fall, she meets Adam, a taciturn airman whose fate becomes entwined with hers. In despair over the occupation, Adam joins the Polish resistance, then flies bombers for the RAF.
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Blech
- By Caroline H. on 02-20-11
By: Diane Armstrong
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The Winterfox Journals Book One: Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter
- By: Brian P. Easton
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Among the Northern Cheyenne of the Great Plains lives a boy named Winterfox, whose family has fought monsters since the days of the Spanish conquistadors. In the aftermath of Westward Expansion, he has become the sole heir to their blood feud against the Beast. Winterfox comes of age in the long shadows of the American frontier, a time when magic has not yet passed into myth. It is a place where the mundane and fantastic still walk side by side, and the warrior society of the Rédo’osnin Dog Men will be remembered a little while longer.
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Counting Coup and Taking Scalps
- By Derek M. Grebner on 11-11-19
By: Brian P. Easton
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Prisoner B-3087
- By: Alan Gratz, Ruth Gruener, Jack Gruener
- Narrated by: Steven Kaplan
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ten concentration camps. Ten different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis, who have taken over. Everything he has and everyone he loves have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner - his arm tattooed with the words Prisoner B-3087.
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Disturbing Good Story
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-08-17
By: Alan Gratz, and others
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Gorky Park
- The Arkady Renko Novels, Book 1
- By: Martin Cruz Smith
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A triple murder in Moscow’s famous Gorky Park amusement centre rocks the capital - three corpses found in the snow, so badly mutilated that their identities can’t be verified. Chief Investigator Arkady Renko from the Moscow police takes the case. Renko is a brilliant investigator - dangerously so. Now, to identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI and the police - and stay alive doing it.
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Mispronunciations distracting
- By Libby on 07-12-19
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Darling Jim
- A Novel
- By: Christian Moerk
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye, Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office's dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he's ever heard---and her tale has only just begun.
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Great Story
- By Book Worm on 05-28-09
By: Christian Moerk
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What listeners say about City of Thieves
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Howard
- 12-05-09
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.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- J
- 10-31-09
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.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Ella
- 01-16-10
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.
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- scott
- 01-30-10
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.
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- ShopTillYouDrop
- 02-27-10
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.
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- Rachel
- 10-17-17
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.
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- Rick
- 05-28-17
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.
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- john
- 09-18-18
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
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- PO
- 10-19-18
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.
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- Steven Petersen
- 08-14-17
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.
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