I started reading a book called The City of Thieves by David Benioff. This book takes place in a city in Russia called Leningrad, during World War two. Leningrad is a city being shelled by bombs and lit up with gunfire every night right outside its gates, for Nazi-Germany is trying to occupy it. If Leningrad falls, Russia might fall. The book focuses about this seventeen year old boy named Lev who wants to be a soldier and protect his country, and to protect his hometown. He's too young to join the red army, so he's in a small firefighting crew. But things change when he is caught looting a dead German's body, and is taken away by the NVK where he is sure he will face execution, a bullet to the back of the head. Instead, he is ordered by a powerful Soviet Colonel to do a mission, a very weird one. To find and collect a dozen eggs, with the help of someone who also thought he would face death, a deserter named Kolya. The eggs are to make the Colonel's daughter's wedding cake.
I think Lev is a very lucky kid. Instead of an execution, all he has to do is find a dozen eggs for the Colonel! He is given about 4-5 days, and if he finds some, he's free. But as I read on, I realized this isn't going to be easy. Leningrad isn't what it used to be, the war has torn it apart. Buildings topple from bombs and mortars everyday, there is barely any food left, so many people starve. Some people have even turned into cannibals because of this, tricking people into their home and then slaughtering them and turning them into dinner. Even if it's a small child it could be killed! But that is unlikely, because all young children and women have evacuated. But still, a dozen eggs in a city with barely any food? With dead bodies lying the alleys and streets?
But I also realized this might have Kolya and Lev form some kind of close friendship along the way. But so far they haven't been getting along. Kolya is a buff, aryan (meaning blond haired and blue eyed, to some people this kind of defines being perfect at that time) and a ladies man, and kind of egotistical, thinking he's always right, while Lev is the opposite. A small, skinny Jewish kid with a big nose and brown eyes and hair, and is still a virgin. Lev has been kind of jealous of Kolya for a while, always envying him.
