City of thieves
From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival — and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime. During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible. By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
8mentions
6people
2013–2025years
88% recommend13% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I read 57 books this year, a mix between fiction and non-fiction
Top 5 fiction
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Trust by Hernan Diaz
- City of Thieves by David Benioff
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- Widow Basquiat by by Jennifer Clement
Top 5 non-fiction
- Boom Town by Sam Anderson
- The Second Founding by Eric Foner
- The Club by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson
- The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel by Douglas Brunt
- The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre
- David Benioff’s (Game of Thrones show runner) City of Thieves is a very entertaining book set during the siege. It was an inspiration for The Last of Us video game (and later HBO series)
- Quantum Field Theory by Peskin and Schroeder. There are many things in that book I could make into a standalone project that could occupy years at a time.
Some other picks:
The Man in The High Castle by Phil K. Dick. The Plague or The Outsider by Albert Camus. City of Thieves by David Benioff.
- City of Thieves by David Benioff (of Game of Thrones fame) is a fictional story of the siege of Leningrad and might also be enjoyable for those interested in Grossman's books. At around 250 pages, it's a very quick read.
- LOL, I got to soi-disant (self-proclaimed; so-called) but that's actually just French, so it doesn't count. The word minatory (menacing; threatening) was the first actual English one I had to Google.
Stopped reading there, but hey, I learned a new word.
I did skim on, though, because I am kind of interested in the topic of difficult novels. My favorite novel, Neuromancer is at least marginally "difficult", based on the reactions of the high school friends to whom I recommended it in the late 1980s -- but I don't think it really is. It introduces many things before they are explained, and probably uses a wider range of vocabulary than most novels of its time, but it's really not that demanding.
A better example is probably The Road, the post-apocalyptic masterpiece by Cormac McCarthy, versus, say, The Dog Stars, the post-apocalyptic masterpiece by Peter Heller. Though the meat of both stories is similar, the former is an energy-intensive slog (but wonderful), while the latter is a light read that can be completed in a couple nights of falling-asleep-reading (and also wonderful).
The reason that I am interested in "difficult" novels is that I find myself incessantly badgering my friends who don't read, or who don't read fiction, to read novels. And even buying them books. But I've found that I can't start with the very best novels because then they won't complete it and it won't take. They won't even finish the first one.
Anyway, before this comment itself grows to novel length, let me just recommend some great — but decidedly not difficult — novels I've recently read.
REAMDE by Neal Stephenson, who often does write difficult novels, but this one is like his version of a supermarket paperback (and still good). Seveneves likewise.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, probably my favorite novel of the past few years (published in 2005 but I didn't find it until years later). Hugo winner.
December 6, by Martin Cruz Smith, a well-known but (in my view) pretty hit-or-miss author, who nevertheless has written a few great novels (Gorky Park being the most famous, but not as good as December 6).
Ancillary Justice, the debut novel from Ann Leckie. It was great, although I didn't find the rest of the trilogy had much to add to it. Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award, though, holy shit right?
City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Memoirs of a Geisha, the unbelievably awesome debut novel from Arthur Golden, from which an unbelievably horrible move was somehow extracted (this story is the kind that cannot be told in a movie, and is a great proof of why we need novels).
- I've read and listened to ~30 books this year, below are the ones I recommend.
Audiobooks (Audible):
Food: A Cultural Culinary History - The Great Courses (if you've ever searched for 'authentic' food, I strongly, strongly recommend this book. It was one of my favorite listening experiences of the year)
City of Thieves - David Benioff (Wonderful storytelling, I recommend the audio version just for the performance)
The Elephant Whisperer - Lawrence Anthony (Another example of great storytelling, highly recommended)
Little Princes - Conor Grennan (Conor does a good job of teleporting you to another world and capturing the inner spirit of being a child anywhere in the world)
The Inner Game of Tennis - Timothy Gallwey (A great paradigm for practice and improvement)
Books:
Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl (For some, this will be life changing. ~3 hour read is all)
Tools of Titans - Tim Ferriss (I've only read through one time, but I plan to use this as a sort of reference book. I agree true that you'll enjoy 50%, love 20% and never forget 10%, but what falls under each category is different for everyone)
The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin (I haven't read any sci-fi in a few years, this was a great reentry to the genre for me)
The Food Lab - J Kenji Lopez-Alt (If you want to know the why as well as the how when you cook, this book is for you)
