82 pages • 2 hours read
David BenioffCity of Thieves
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
City of Thieves
- Genre: Fiction; historical suspense
- Originally Published: 2008
- Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
- Structure/Length: 27 chapters; 258 pages; approx. 8 hours, 28 minutes on audio
- Protagonist and Central Conflict: During the siege of Leningrad in 1942, 17-year-old Lev Beniov is arrested when he is caught looting the goods from a dead parachutist. He assumes he will be executed, but instead, a Soviet colonel offers Lev and newly-met cellmate Kolya, an outspoken deserter, a chance at freedom if they can procure an impossible-to-find luxury in the starved city: a dozen eggs for the cake for the colonel’s daughter’s wedding.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Wartime violence; antisemitism; death; sexual exploitation; animal cruelty; profanity; cannibalism
David Benioff (David Friedman), Author
- Bio: American writer, screenwriter, and producer; born in 1970 in New York City and raised in Manhattan; attended Dartmouth College, Trinity College in Dublin, and University of California at Irvine, where he earned an MFA in creative writing; worked on screenplays for Troy (2004) and The Kite Runner (2007) among other films; co-creator of Game of Thrones (2011-2019; television series based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series)
- Other Works: The 25th Hour (2001); When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) (2004)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
