Why am I passionate about this?
Growing up, I felt both the denial and existential shame in the ether of my family—that something was missing. Decades after my birth, I learned that many of my ancestors died by the Nazis. I’m Jewish, but it was never mentioned; my grandfather and father kept it quiet. In fact, we celebrated Christmas. I started to research my lineage at the same time I was writing a story about a catholic boy who falls in love with a Jewish girl when I stumbled upon a reference to a WWII Nazi slave labor death camp called Berga and was stunned to learn that Jewish POWs were enslaved at a death camp.
Christopher's book list on survival, WWII history, and the Holocaust
Why did Christopher love this book?
This book grabbed me and never let go. Humor was infused within the tragic backdrop of Nazi Germany with perfect harmony. I loved the undying loyalty and friendship that was built between jailed teenager, Lev and his Sundance sidekick, Kolya and the eclectic band of characters they bond with while searching for a dozen eggs to use for the colonel’s daughter’s wedding cake.
Hilarious and sad. I laughed out loud many times, then my guts turned inside out from the tragic circumstances plaguing the young men as their life hung in the balance searching for those dozen eggs.
5 authors picked City of Thieves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival - and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.
During the Nazis' brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in…