City of Thieves

A screenwriter sits down with his grandfather, Lev, and asks about the months he lived through in Leningrad while German forces besieged the city from 1941 to 1944. The book is framed as that conversation, with Lev recounting what befell him at seventeen.

After a looting incident, Lev is arrested and locked in a cell with Kolya, a soldier accused of desertion who never stops talking. Both face execution. A secret police colonel offers them a deal: find a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake, and they live.

Eggs are nearly impossible to find in a city where people are starving. The search pushes Lev and Kolya out of Leningrad and into territory held by German forces. Along the way they meet partisans, soldiers and survivors.

Dark humour runs alongside real danger. Much of the book rests on the growing friendship between two young men who have little in common, and on whether a pointless errand can keep them alive. It won a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association, given to adult books with special appeal for teen readers.