'AN EXCEPTIONAL STORYTELLER' Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner

'Ingenious'
New York Times Book Review

'Compelling'
Daily Telegraph

'Fast-moving'
Spectator

'Cinematic'
Marie Claire

'Gripping'
New York Magazine

From the co-creator and writer of the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.

Four months into the siege of Leningrad, the city is starving. Seventeen-year-old Lev fears for his life when he is arrested for looting the body of a dead German paratrooper, while his charismatic cellmate, Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested for desertion, seems bizarrely unafraid.

Dawn brings, instead of an execution squad, an impossible challenge. Lev and Kolya can find a dozen eggs for an NKVD colonel to use for his daughter's wedding cake, and live. Or fail, and die.

In the depths of the coldest winter in history, through a city cut off from all supplies and suffering appalling deprivation, man and boy embark on an absurd hunt. Their search will take them through desolate, lawless Leningrad and the devastated countryside surrounding it, in the captivating journey of two men trying to survive against desperate odds.


PRAISE FOR DAVID BENIOFF

'Master of the zippy, punchy, knee-to-the-groin story'
Independent on Sunday

'An ace storyteller'
Entertainment Weekly

'A skilled creator'
Daily Telegraph

A thrilling novel from the critically-acclaimed author of THE 25TH HOUR and one of Hollywood's brightest screenwriting stars.

About the Author
David Benioff is an author and screenwriter. He adapted his first novel, The 25th Hour, into the feature film directed by Spike Lee. Stories from his critically acclaimed collection When the Nines Roll Over appeared in Best New American Voices. City of Thieves is his second novel. A co-creator of the HBO hit series Game of Thrones, he is also the writer of the films Troy, Brothers and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He lives in Los Angeles and New York City.

Reviews
David Benioff is an exceptional storyteller. With humor, heart, and at times relentless suspense, he has written a riveting war novel and an engaging coming of age story. City of Thieves is tender, illuminating, and, be warned, often shocking. It is the kind of compellingly readable book that lingers long after it is read -- Khaled Hosseini, author of THE KITE RUNNER
It's beautifully written and acutely observed and I defy you to put it down -- John Humphrys * Daily Mail *
A fast-moving adventure story . . . it had me gripped * Spectator *
Ingenious . . . The research never stands out because Benioff weaves it in so deftly. He shifts tone with perfect control -- no recent novel I've read travels so quickly and surely between registers, from humour to devastation * New York Times Book Review *
A hard-to-put-down novel . . . Benioff blends tense adventure, a bittersweet coming-of-age and an oddly touching buddy narrative to craft a smart crowd-pleaser * Publishers Weekly *
A high-spirited adventure * Booklist *
Splendid . . . Benioff has produced a funny, sad, and thrilling novel * Entertainment Weekly *
This spellbinding story perfectly blends tragedy and comedy * USA Today *
Benioff is a skilled creator of atmospheres . . . Told with compelling power * Daily Telegraph *
David Benioff's glorious second novel is a wild action-packed quest and much else besides: a coming-of-age story, an odd-couple tale and a juicy footnote to the siege of Leningrad . . . This gut-churning thriller will sweep you along * Kirkus, starred review *
A gripping, at times gory, but ultimately sweet story . . . It has the phenomenal twists of, yes, a great movie * New York Magazine *
A master storyteller . . . Benioff's inventiveness carries you along with no pause for breath . . . A testament of towering imagination * Jewish Chronicle *
A zipping and unexpectedly amusing read . . . Gifted with the touch of a fairy-story teller himself, Benioff manages to combine a sense of dark realism with entertaining brio * Herald *
A cinematic tale of a scared boy and a nonchalant man traversing the famished, snow-bound city of Leningrad in search of 12 eggs for a wedding cake . . . it's the pair's jaunty argumentative friendship that gives this novel such heart * Marie Claire *
Finely honed * The New Yorker *
The latest master of the zippy, punchy, knee-to-the-groin story is David Benioff * Independent on Sunday *
Expert tone . . . fine sense of pace * Financial Times *
Pacy, but with more depth than that suggests * City A.M. *
Benioff's buddy story is hotwired with a breakneck plot that hurtles along at rabid intensity * Time Out Sydney *
A rough-and-tumble tale that clenches humour, savagery, and pathos squarely together on the same page * Washington Post *
Benioff peppers his swift-moving plot with pitch-dark humor and unexpected turns. It's a rousing reading experience, to cackle aloud at one paragraph then gasp at the next . . . I'm glad I waited until warm weather to start this winter's tale. But really, any other time would have been just fine. There's no bad season to read a book this good -- Ken Jaworowski * New York Times Book Review *
Benioff blends humour and horror expertly * San Francisco Chronicle *
A deft storyteller, Benioff writes about starvation, cannibalism, and Nazi atrocities with poise and cinematic flair. If Thieves were a movie, it would start out like Schindler's List and end up like Raiders of the Lost Ark * People *
David Benioff's second novel features a snappy plot, a buoyant friendship, a quirky courtship, an assortment of menacing bad guys, an atmosphere that flickers between grainy realism and fairy-tale grotesquery and a grim but irrepressible sense of humour. Really, everything a reader could hope for in a buddy story set during the German army's siege of Leningrad during World War II * Los Angeles Times *
Beautifully paced and seemingly effortless -- Maile Meloy, author of LIARS AND SAINTS
A modern masterpiece, both heart-stopping and heartbreaking . . . a shatteringly beautiful and brilliant work. And on rare occasions we're handed a gift of a novel that's so filled with truth it has the power to change the way we look at the world. City of Thieves is one of them * bookreporter.com *



Book Information
ISBN 9780340977392
Author David Benioff
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 281g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 133mm * 26mm