Benioff blends tense adventure, a bittersweet coming-of-age and an oddly touching buddy narrative to craft a smart crowd-pleaser. The story follows Lev, a Russian Jew, and Kolya, a Cossack soldier, during the Siege of Leningrad in World War II.

The story is framed as the memories of the narrator’s grandfather, Lev Beniov. A wry and sympathetic observer of the devastation around him, Lev is an engaging and self-deprecating narrator who finds unexpected reserves of courage at the crucial moment and forms an unlikely friendship with Kolya, a flamboyant ladies' man who is coolly reckless in the face of danger. City of Thieves, published in 2008, is a historical novel by Jewish American author David Benioff. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds.

His grandmother won't talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. Set in the year 1942, City of Thieves is all about the adventurous journey of two youths, Lev Abramovich Beniov and Kolya Vlasov, to find a dozen eggs for a Soviet officer. A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. There, Lev and Kolya take on an even more daring objective: to kill the commander of the local occupying German forces. David Benioffs City of Thieves is a well-written and engaging story set during the times of World War II in Russias Leningrad. Their mission exposes them to the most ghoulish acts of the starved populace and takes them behind enemy lines to the Russian countryside. But when Colonel Grechko confronts Lev and Kolya, a Russian army deserter also facing execution, he spares them on the condition that they acquire a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's wedding cake. The penalty for this infraction (and many others) is execution. Having elected to stay in Leningrad during the siege, 17-year-old Lev Beniov is caught looting a German paratrooper's corpse. It follows the adventures of two youths as they desperately search for a dozen eggs at the behest of a Soviet NKVD officer, a task that takes them far behind enemy lines. It is, in part, a coming of age story set in the World War II siege of Leningrad. With this hard-to-put-down novel based on his grandfather's stories about surviving WWII in Russia. City of Thieves is a 2008 historical fiction novel by David Benioff. Author and screenwriter Benioff follows up The 25th Hour

City of thieves by david benioff