City of Thieves - David Benioff ------------------- 4 Stars

I heard about City of Thieves on a recent podcast, and the individual shared it was one of his favorite books. As I dug deeper, it was really difficult to find anyone who had a bad thing to say about this book. Those positive impressions combined with it's short length made it an obvious book to give it a try, and I'm pretty happy I did.

As I had not heard of this book before and others might also not have awareness, a quick synopsis - this book tells the story of two Russians during the siege of Leningrad during World War 2. After some surprising circumstances, these two strangers end up being close friends as they work to secure a dozen eggs for a colonel's daughter's wedding. 

As I mentioned earlier, this book is a quick read, coming in at only 280 pages (it reads even faster). More importantly, it's a highly engaging and entertaining read that is delivered enjoyably by this strong author (learned after I finished the book that Benioff is a co-creator of Game of Thrones). While a serious subject matter filled with many violent passages and war heavy themes, this book seems to never lose its way as a playful story. Much of this is due to the sharp storytelling, funny dialogue, and a rich main character who never lets the seriousness of the war overtake the joy that exists as part of life. As I've written many times before, I love good dialogue, and this book offers some of the best back and forths and retorts between characters. As you may also assume from the unlikely plot, the search for the eggs is an intriguing centerpiece as the reader is constantly reminded of the heartaches of war.

While I found this a great read and difficult to put down, a few things held it back. First, the themes are mature and can be difficult to get through at some parts. Death is a constant part of the book and some chapters were difficult to read as the author had a way of making the reader feel the anxiety and tenseness of situations. Sex was also a constant theme (and often funny distraction) of the story. Second, I found it difficult to give a much higher rating with the shortness of the story. While I don't know if a longer book would have actually made the story better, it's hard to feel the "fullness" of a story or it's characters when you only get to know them over a short period of time (in this case, literally only 5 days).

As a whole, it's hard to not recommend this book. What a great return on investment for the little time needed to read! It's hard to read this book and not feel interested in the characters and engaged in the story developing. That's really the magic of the book - a great story!