City of Thieves By David Benioff

Sorry for the long absence, but it has not been wasted! I have got a number of new reviews to post for all the books I have been reading over the past few months.....well the ones worth reviewing anyway!!!

So here goes.....

City of Thieves by David Benioff

David Benioff has written a couple of books in his literary career, neither of which I have read. In fact until I bought this book I had not heard of him. I have heard of films he has screen written, like Kite Runner and X-Men etc. I was in Tescos and I spotted a paper cover on this book that claimed to give the buyer 2 free books if they did not enjoy the book. Intrigued I took up the challenge. Obviously there was an end date to this offer which well exceeded the time it would take to read the book, so I thought, "Hey, read it and then trade in in for a couple of new ones..." Whether or not I did this will come later!

The book is set in one of the coldest winters in history in a war torn city under German siege. The main characters, shy Lev and charismatic, risk-taker Kolya are thrown together in a mission to find a dozen eggs in a week in order to be forgiven for their crimes.

The back cover didn't fill me with too much enthusiasm...mmmm a story about an egg hunt they say? But my curiosity took the better of me and I began reading.

387 glorious, heart-pounding, riveting pages later I dropped the book into the hand of my husband and said READ!! It was brilliant.

Without giving the plot away too much and thus ruining the read for others, I can tell you among the content the young men encounter cannibalism, brothels, murder, desperate hunger, capture, Nazis and bonds so strong they will change their lives. I have not read a book so fast in a long time.

Usually my husband and I differ greatly on books and when I thrust a book into his hand insisting he read it he rarely gets to page 50 before giving up and returning to his own favoured genres. City of Thieves proved a rare exception to this rule. I have since passed it on to another 4 family members and friends and have not heard a bad review yet. Needless to say the book is still in my possession, and I intend to carry on circulating it!!

I never did want the free ones in exchange!!