City of Thieves by David Benioff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

During WWII, the city of Leningrad, Russia is being held under siege by Germans. Lev is caught looting a dead German officer he is arrested and thrown in a cell, to be executed by the next day. With him is a fellow Russian, Kolya, who has been arrested under the premise of deserting his rank. They must procure a dozen eggs within a week for a powerful colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. They soon begin to discover the horrible measures people have come to survive; children eating the pages of books, hunger-crazed citizens turning to cannibalism. They happen across a group of rebellious partisans, mostly compiled of farmers- with the exception of Vika. She is an expert marksman, and a girl posing as a man so she can fight. Lev and Kolya find themselves working with the partisans to help destroy important German units. Lev discovers he has feelings for Vika. Lev and Kolya have two days to retrieve the eggs they had long forgotten about. With some luck Kolya convinces the German General into a chess match with Lev. If Lev wins the three will be granted their freedom from the Germans and twelve eggs, if he loses the three will be killed. Lev wins out, kills 2 Germans and he and Kolya run back to Leningrad, parting ways with Vika to Lev’s dismay. Tragically upon their entering the city Kolya is killed accidentally by a Russian soldier. Lev receives his liberty alone and lives in Leningrad till the end of the siege. Eventually he is reunited with Vika.

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