Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for City of Thieves by David Benioff. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. David Benioff is an acclaimed scriptwriter with Troy and The Kite Runner among his film credits. Can you tell? Did you identify any filmic qualities in City of Thieves? Would the novel transfer well to the big screen?
  2. Would you describe this book as a coming-of-age story? How does Lev develop over the course of the novel? What, if anything, causes him to change? Do any of the other characters change?
  3. What does City of Thieves have to say about masculinity and femininity during times of war? How do the book’s characters conform to and subvert traditional gender roles? Why do they?
  4. Is David Benioff successful at melding fact and fiction? What techniques does he employ to communicate the facts of the siege without it reading like a history lesson? Does he get the balance right?
  5. Why do you think David Banioff included the introductory chapter narrated by Lev’s grandson? What is the effect of this passage on the rest of the book? Did it affect your interpretation of the subsequent action, and if so, how?
  6. ‘Kolya was a braggart, a know-it-all, a Jew-baiting Cossak, but his confidence was so pure and complete it no longer seemed like arrogance, just the mark of a man who had accepted his own heroic destiny’ (p.116). Is Kolya a hero? Did you succumb to his charms? Do you think he may have been judged differently if he had survived the siege?
  7. ‘[The Germans] think they’re the only culture in Europe? They really want to match Goethe and Heine against Pushkin and Tolstoy? I’ll give them music . . . and philosophy. But literature? No, I think not’ (p.232). Why is culture so important to Kolya and other characters in the novel? What is the relevance of The Courtyard Hound story (p.288)?
  8. ‘Fucking Moscow . . . the porcine bureaucrats in the capital would probably surrender . . . if they couldn’t get their weekly ration of sturgeon’ (p.104). Where do the characters’ loyalties lie in this book? To Russia, to Leningrad, to Communism, or to the government? Or what? Who are the ‘baddies’?
  9. What does City of Thieves have to say about courage?
  10. ‘I had met [Kolya] on Friday night and didn’t even like him until Monday, and now, Tuesday afternoon, seeing him alive again made me want to cry with happiness’ (p.215). Why do Lev and Kolya forge such a strong bond? Would their friendship have been viable in peaceful circumstances?
  11. ‘ “David”, he said. “You’re a writer. Make it up” ’ (p.6). What did you think of Lev encouraging David to ‘make up’ his story? How seriously are we to take the biographical element of this book? Does it matter if the facts are not strictly accurate?
  12. What is the relevance of Lev and Kolya’s mission to find eggs? Is it merely a plot device or does it represent something more profound about the nature of war?
  13. ‘This was the way we decided to talk, free and easy . . . You couldn’t let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn’t admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen’ (p.74). How do Lev and Kolya communicate with each other? How do they cope with their traumatic experiences? Do they differ in their approach?
  14. ‘I had become a phantom. There was no one left in the city who knew my full name’ (p.82). What does the war do to individuals and their sense of identity?
  15. ‘ “How did you become a sniper?” “I started shooting people.” ’ (p.244) How would you describe the humour in this book? Were you surprised by it? Is it appropriate in a war novel?

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