City of Thieves

City of Thieves is a historical fiction novel set during the German siege of Leningrad. In a nutshell, City of Thieves is a coming of age tale surrounding a seventeen year old boy named Lev and a 20-something soldier called Kolya.

After being arrested for looting, Lev was placed in a cell and met Kolya who is arrested for desertion. An NKVD Colonel gave them a task to look for a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake and with that offer an opportunity to save their lives and escape the death sentence for the crime they had each committed. Their task brings them to a journey of survival against the odds.

I was really looking forward to reading this book seeing that it received great reviews from some of the other book blogs that I’ve visited. Sad to say I do not share their views and thought that the book was just an okay read. I found the facts presented surrounding the siege interesting and I learned a lot about Russia and the effects of World War II on Leningrad.

However, the characters and the plot failed to engage my interest. The story of how two characters who are total opposites of each other finding friendship through the challenges they faced sounded intriguing but somehow in the end I found the storyline to be a bit unrealistic. Personally, its not one of the best books I've read this year.