Fiction & Poetry, Modern & Contemporary Fiction
City of Thieves

City of Thieves

Paperback Published on: 01/06/2009
£10.99
12 reviews
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £3.99
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Make and edit your lists in your account
Check click & collect stock near you
Collect today: Pay in shop
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Check click & collect stock near you
Collect today: Pay in shop

Bookseller Reviews

View all
City of Thieves
Reads like a film
You can tell as you read this charming book that Benioff has experience writing film scripts. The novel is carefully plotted to keep you turning the pages ... READ MORE
James Stone at Gloucester

Synopsis

From the writer of the award-winning Game of Thrones series for HBO based on the books of George R. R. Martin.

Four months into the siege of Leningrad, the city is starving. Seventeen-year-old Lev fears for his life when he is arrested for looting the body of a dead German paratrooper, while his charismatic cellmate, Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested for desertion, seems bizarrely unafraid.

Dawn brings, instead of an execution squad, an impossible challenge. Lev and Kolya can find a dozen eggs for an NKVD colonel to use for his daughter's wedding cake, and live. Or fail, and die.

In the depths of the coldest winter in history, through a city cut off from all supplies and suffering appalling deprivation, man and boy embark on an absurd hunt.

Their search will take them through desolate, lawless Leningrad and the devastated countryside surrounding it, in the captivating journey of two men trying to survive against desperate odds.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
  • ISBN: 9780340977392
  • Number of pages: 400
  • Dimensions: 197 x 133 x 26 mm
  • Weight: 281g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

View all
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
I enjoyed City of Thieves from the first line to the last. I found the story interesting, the narrator engaging and the relationships between the characte... READ MORE
Lucy Oakes
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
I loved this book and felt genuinely bereft when I finished it. It's one of those books you can't put down; it hooks you with a gripping narrative and stro... READ MORE
Helen Nash
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
A "Quest" novel set in the wartime besieged city of Leningrad... The object of the quest, a dozen eggs, which at first seems to be a bit fragile for the pl... READ MORE
Dapo
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
When I picked up this book, I wasn't sure I'd like it. I had to force myself to put it down at the end of a chapter at 3am. It is a thoroughly absorbing ... READ MORE
Stella Anderson
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
I have to admit that initially I didn't think I would enjoy this book - it is about the search for eggs after all! However, I am pleased to say that I was... READ MORE
Georgina Bickerstaffe
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
Fantastic! I was hooked from the first sentence. "My grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen."This is Lev's story of the... READ MORE
Helen Cleaves
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
This was a wonderful book, and I devoured it in one sitting! Written with clear voices, portraying the two main characters, Lev, a young teenager, and Koyl... READ MORE
Anne Watkinson
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
'My grandfather, the knife fighter, killed two Germans before he was eighteen.' This is the opening sentence of City of Thieves and it had me hooked. The g... READ MORE
Anja de Jager
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
This is not the first novel that I have read that is set in the terrible days of the siege of Leningrad, but in my view it is far and away the best. David ... READ MORE
Cardholder Reviews
City of Thieves
City of Thieves
Stunning. Stays with you long after the final turn of the page. The send of time and place is immense; it's harrowing, funny and surreal but well worth it ... READ MORE
Lisa Goll
City of Thieves
Puerile, maybe OK for adolescent reader
This book stinks. Plotting, characterisation and sense of time and place are all flawed. Such rich potential from that moment in history but let down by t... READ MORE
Ian C