City of Thieves
David Benioff
 The story as introduced is the recollections of a contemporary Russian Jewish émigré living in Florida. Seventeen year old Lev Beniov lives alone in an apartment in Leningrad (which the narrator refers to as "Piter", the nickname residents use for their city) as his poet father was recently abducted by the NKVD secret police and his mother and sister have fled the besieged city. Lev is arrested for looting the body of an ejected Luftwaffe pilot. Sent to prison, he meets Kolya Vlasov, a young soldier arrested for deserting his unit. Though just three years older than Lev, Kolya is more cultured and refined than Lev. Lev and Kolya are brought to an NKVD colonel Grechko who barters with them: if they are able to obtain a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's upcoming wedding, the two will be given their freedom. If they are unable to find the eggs, a luxury in the starving city, both will lose their lives. During Lev and Kolya's journey for the eggs, they come across an assorted cast of characters, including cannibals and a group of Soviet partisans. Eventually, Lev and Kolya allow themselves to be taken prisoner by the Germans. To gain the coveted dozen eggs, Lev must beat a sadistic German officer in a game of chess. Kolya and Vika (a female survivor of the partisan group) kill the officer and his guards before escaping, and Lev loses half a finger in the fight. Vika leaves them to find another partisan group and they return to "Piter". As they approach the city, Kolya is shot by a Soviet sniper. He is taken to hospital but bleeds to death anyway, while Lev discovers that the colonel had three dozen eggs airlifted in. At the end of the novel Lev is in his apartment when Vika, who had promised to track him down, turns up. She says she does not cook, suggesting they marry, as at the start Lev's grandson says his grandmother would never cook.