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Changed line(s) 1,58 (click to see context) from:
->''"The birthplace of Bolshevism, that city of thieves and maggots."''
-->-Hitler on Leningrad
A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and his friends were on the roof of their apartment building, they see a dead German paratrooper fall from the sky, and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the NKVD arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but Lev is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake, with eggs being among the rarer things to find in a besieged Leningrad. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Russia in search of these eggs.
Not to be confused with the Literature/FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
----
!!This Novel Provides Examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The search for eggs is ultimately pointless and Kolya dies in the attempt to get home. However, Vika and Lev apparently hook up in the end - his grandson mentions that grandma "never cooks," implying that Vika and her are one and the same person.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote that was (badly) counterfeited by the Nazis to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Kolya''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[spoiler:In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Plays an important part in the story near the end.
* ColdSniper: Vika, although she warms up a bit.
* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Korsakov, one of the partisans, gets the bottom half of his face blown off by a German when they're trying to escape oncoming forces.
** At the end of the novel,[[spoiler: Kolya]] is ShotInTheAss by his fellow Russians. That's gotta be at least considered 'unusual'.
** Zoya, [[spoiler:a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Lev to Kolya pretty much whenever he talks.
* {{Determinator}}: Lev and Kolya, following a black market seller's tip, find a boy and his frozen-dead grandfather in a chicken coop on the roof of a building holding a gun and one last chicken. Despite their best intentions, he is unwilling to leave the post his grandfather held valiantly against the thieves trying to get to his chickens. (He does give them the chicken on the brink of his death, when he realizes there's no point in it anymore).
* EmotionlessGirl: Vika, who is disinterested in all things that aren't war.
** She's badass enough to be {{The Stoic}}, too.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* {{Friends with Benefits}}: Kolya and Sonya, who dwell in their "benefits" while Kolya and Lev are housed at her place.
* HandsomeLech: Kolya, who boasts much experience in the matters of sex (and even gets some while on the trip), despite his nature.
* HelloNurse: Colonel Grechko's daughter. Both Lev and Kolya only need to see her from a distance to go crazy over her looks. Part of it is the fact that she's one of the first well-fed and healthy-looking people they've seen for months.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lev and Kolya, to the point where Vika compares them to a pair of lovers more than a few times.
* HopeSpot: When Lev and Kolya find [[spoiler:the last surviving chicken in the roof coop]] already on the second day of their search. [[spoiler:Turns out it's a rooster.]]
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: While there is the suspicious meat that is most probably human, there is a much more explicit example.
* LovableSexManiac: Kolya, who even finds a way to jerk-off while walking when he's bored.
* MercyKill: Kolya slitting a disembowelled dog's throat.
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of it being made of human.
* NonActionGuy: Lev, who's never been close to the type of violence and pace that he experiences in the trip.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: Lev and Kolya, in the early search for eggs, come across a the building of a desperate husband and wife where the limbs and rib cages of women and small children hang from chains on the ceiling.
* TheQuest: Risking their lives...all for a dozen eggs.
* {{Revenge}}: A random Russian in a prisoner line tells his German captors that Markov, another partisan, is a partisan as revenge against Markov for stealing all the food in his house. Vika gets revenge on that guy later that night, while everyone is sleeping, and slits his throat.
* RunningGag: How long has it been since Kolya's taken a shit?
* [[spoiler: ShootTheShaggyDog:]] [[spoiler: Lev discovers in the end that the Colonel just had eggs airlifted for his daughter's wedding.]]
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatzgruppen.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cold is Mother Russia's oldest weapon, after all.
* ShotInTheAss
* ThereIsNoHigherCourt: There's not even a court to begin with.
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who had food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
* ThoseWackyNazis
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: They had to go there to find the eggs, after all.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII
----
-->-Hitler on Leningrad
A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and his friends were on the roof of their apartment building, they see a dead German paratrooper fall from the sky, and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the NKVD arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but Lev is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake, with eggs being among the rarer things to find in a besieged Leningrad. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Russia in search of these eggs.
Not to be confused with the Literature/FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
----
!!This Novel Provides Examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The search for eggs is ultimately pointless and Kolya dies in the attempt to get home. However, Vika and Lev apparently hook up in the end - his grandson mentions that grandma "never cooks," implying that Vika and her are one and the same person.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote that was (badly) counterfeited by the Nazis to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Kolya''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[spoiler:In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Plays an important part in the story near the end.
* ColdSniper: Vika, although she warms up a bit.
* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Korsakov, one of the partisans, gets the bottom half of his face blown off by a German when they're trying to escape oncoming forces.
** At the end of the novel,[[spoiler: Kolya]] is ShotInTheAss by his fellow Russians. That's gotta be at least considered 'unusual'.
** Zoya, [[spoiler:a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Lev to Kolya pretty much whenever he talks.
* {{Determinator}}: Lev and Kolya, following a black market seller's tip, find a boy and his frozen-dead grandfather in a chicken coop on the roof of a building holding a gun and one last chicken. Despite their best intentions, he is unwilling to leave the post his grandfather held valiantly against the thieves trying to get to his chickens. (He does give them the chicken on the brink of his death, when he realizes there's no point in it anymore).
* EmotionlessGirl: Vika, who is disinterested in all things that aren't war.
** She's badass enough to be {{The Stoic}}, too.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* {{Friends with Benefits}}: Kolya and Sonya, who dwell in their "benefits" while Kolya and Lev are housed at her place.
* HandsomeLech: Kolya, who boasts much experience in the matters of sex (and even gets some while on the trip), despite his nature.
* HelloNurse: Colonel Grechko's daughter. Both Lev and Kolya only need to see her from a distance to go crazy over her looks. Part of it is the fact that she's one of the first well-fed and healthy-looking people they've seen for months.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lev and Kolya, to the point where Vika compares them to a pair of lovers more than a few times.
* HopeSpot: When Lev and Kolya find [[spoiler:the last surviving chicken in the roof coop]] already on the second day of their search. [[spoiler:Turns out it's a rooster.]]
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: While there is the suspicious meat that is most probably human, there is a much more explicit example.
* LovableSexManiac: Kolya, who even finds a way to jerk-off while walking when he's bored.
* MercyKill: Kolya slitting a disembowelled dog's throat.
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of it being made of human.
* NonActionGuy: Lev, who's never been close to the type of violence and pace that he experiences in the trip.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: Lev and Kolya, in the early search for eggs, come across a the building of a desperate husband and wife where the limbs and rib cages of women and small children hang from chains on the ceiling.
* TheQuest: Risking their lives...all for a dozen eggs.
* {{Revenge}}: A random Russian in a prisoner line tells his German captors that Markov, another partisan, is a partisan as revenge against Markov for stealing all the food in his house. Vika gets revenge on that guy later that night, while everyone is sleeping, and slits his throat.
* RunningGag: How long has it been since Kolya's taken a shit?
* [[spoiler: ShootTheShaggyDog:]] [[spoiler: Lev discovers in the end that the Colonel just had eggs airlifted for his daughter's wedding.]]
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatzgruppen.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cold is Mother Russia's oldest weapon, after all.
* ShotInTheAss
* ThereIsNoHigherCourt: There's not even a court to begin with.
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who had food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
* ThoseWackyNazis
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: They had to go there to find the eggs, after all.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII
----
to:
-->-Hitler on Leningrad
A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and his friends were on the roof of their apartment building, they see a dead German paratrooper fall from the sky, and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the NKVD arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but Lev is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake, with eggs being among the rarer things to find in a besieged Leningrad. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Russia in search of these eggs.
Not to be confused with the Literature/FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
----
!!This Novel Provides Examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The search for eggs is ultimately pointless and Kolya dies in the attempt to get home. However, Vika and Lev apparently hook up in the end - his grandson mentions that grandma "never cooks," implying that Vika and her are one and the same person.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote that was (badly) counterfeited by the Nazis to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Kolya''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[spoiler:In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Plays an important part in the story near the end.
* ColdSniper: Vika, although she warms up a bit.
* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Korsakov, one of the partisans, gets the bottom half of his face blown off by a German when they're trying to escape oncoming forces.
** At the end of the novel,[[spoiler: Kolya]] is ShotInTheAss by his fellow Russians. That's gotta be at least considered 'unusual'.
** Zoya, [[spoiler:a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Lev to Kolya pretty much whenever he talks.
* {{Determinator}}: Lev and Kolya, following a black market seller's tip, find a boy and his frozen-dead grandfather in a chicken coop on the roof of a building holding a gun and one last chicken. Despite their best intentions, he is unwilling to leave the post his grandfather held valiantly against the thieves trying to get to his chickens. (He does give them the chicken on the brink of his death, when he realizes there's no point in it anymore).
* EmotionlessGirl: Vika, who is disinterested in all things that aren't war.
** She's badass enough to be {{The Stoic}}, too.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* {{Friends with Benefits}}: Kolya and Sonya, who dwell in their "benefits" while Kolya and Lev are housed at her place.
* HandsomeLech: Kolya, who boasts much experience in the matters of sex (and even gets some while on the trip), despite his nature.
* HelloNurse: Colonel Grechko's daughter. Both Lev and Kolya only need to see her from a distance to go crazy over her looks. Part of it is the fact that she's one of the first well-fed and healthy-looking people they've seen for months.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lev and Kolya, to the point where Vika compares them to a pair of lovers more than a few times.
* HopeSpot: When Lev and Kolya find [[spoiler:the last surviving chicken in the roof coop]] already on the second day of their search. [[spoiler:Turns out it's a rooster.]]
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: While there is the suspicious meat that is most probably human, there is a much more explicit example.
* LovableSexManiac: Kolya, who even finds a way to jerk-off while walking when he's bored.
* MercyKill: Kolya slitting a disembowelled dog's throat.
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of it being made of human.
* NonActionGuy: Lev, who's never been close to the type of violence and pace that he experiences in the trip.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: Lev and Kolya, in the early search for eggs, come across a the building of a desperate husband and wife where the limbs and rib cages of women and small children hang from chains on the ceiling.
* TheQuest: Risking their lives...all for a dozen eggs.
* {{Revenge}}: A random Russian in a prisoner line tells his German captors that Markov, another partisan, is a partisan as revenge against Markov for stealing all the food in his house. Vika gets revenge on that guy later that night, while everyone is sleeping, and slits his throat.
* RunningGag: How long has it been since Kolya's taken a shit?
* [[spoiler: ShootTheShaggyDog:]] [[spoiler: Lev discovers in the end that the Colonel just had eggs airlifted for his daughter's wedding.]]
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatzgruppen.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cold is Mother Russia's oldest weapon, after all.
* ShotInTheAss
* ThereIsNoHigherCourt: There's not even a court to begin with.
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who had food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
* ThoseWackyNazis
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: They had to go there to find the eggs, after all.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* MercyKill: Kolya shooting the disembowelled dog.
to:
* MercyKill: Kolya shooting the slitting a disembowelled dog.dog's throat.
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Added DiffLines:
* MercyKill: Kolya shooting the disembowelled dog.
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Changed line(s) 18,19 (click to see context) from:
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote Lev finds that was (badly)counterfeited by the Fritz to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
to:
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote Lev finds that was (badly)counterfeited (badly) counterfeited by the Fritz Nazis to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Lev''':''(reading -->'''Kolya''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: loosing half of a finger in a fight.]]
to:
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: loosing losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of being made of human.
to:
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of it being made of human.
Changed line(s) 48 (click to see context) from:
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatzgruppen are basically this.
to:
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatzgruppen are basically this.Einzatzgruppen.
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who ha food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
to:
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who ha had food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,11 (click to see context) from:
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and friends were on the roof of the apartment building where they lived, they see a German paratrooper fall from the sky (who has been dead since he ejected from the cockpit), and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the GAZ arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake with, eggs being among the rarer things to find in Russia around this time. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Leningrad in search these eggs.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake with, eggs being among the rarer things to find in Russia around this time. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Leningrad in search these eggs.
to:
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and his friends were on the roof of the their apartment building where they lived, building, they see a dead German paratrooper fall from the sky (who has been dead since he ejected from the cockpit), sky, and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the GAZ NKVD arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but Lev is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make thecake with, cake, with eggs being among the rarer things to find in Russia around this time.a besieged Leningrad. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling throughLeningrad Russia in search of these eggs.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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Added DiffLines:
* HelloNurse: Colonel Grechko's daughter. Both Lev and Kolya only need to see her from a distance to go crazy over her looks. Part of it is the fact that she's one of the first well-fed and healthy-looking people they've seen for months.
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Changed line(s) 20 (click to see context) from:
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
to:
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[In [[spoiler:In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 19 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
to:
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language? language?
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
* BrickJoke: Kolya's recurring obsession with how long it's been since he last took a shit becomes a plot point towards the end. [[In an extremely ''non''-funny and harrowing way: Kolya tries to drag Lev off to see his shit, Lev refuses because he doesn't want to look at ''that'', and as they have a slight fight, Lev falls over on top of the egg box. Fortunately, the eggs survive.]]
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* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatgruppen are basically this.
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* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatgruppen Einzatzgruppen are basically this.
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** Zoya, a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.
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** Zoya, a [[spoiler:a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.]]
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Not to be confused with the FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
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Not to be confused with the FightingFantasy Literature/FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
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* HopeSpot: When Lev and Kolya find [[spoiler:the last surviving chicken in the roof coop]] already on the second day of their search. [[spoiler:Turns out it's a rooster.]]
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* WorldWarII
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* WorldWarIIUsefulNotes/WorldWarII
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->''"The birthplace of Bolshevism, that city of thieves and maggots."''
-->-Hitler on Leningrad
A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and friends were on the roof of the apartment building where they lived, they see a German paratrooper fall from the sky (who has been dead since he ejected from the cockpit), and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the GAZ arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake with, eggs being among the rarer things to find in Russia around this time. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Leningrad in search these eggs.
Not to be confused with the FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
----
!!This Novel Provides Examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The search for eggs is ultimately pointless and Kolya dies in the attempt to get home. However, Vika and Lev apparently hook up in the end - his grandson mentions that grandma "never cooks," implying that Vika and her are one and the same person.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote Lev finds that was (badly)counterfeited by the Fritz to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Plays an important part in the story near the end.
* ColdSniper: Vika, although she warms up a bit.
* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Korsakov, one of the partisans, gets the bottom half of his face blown off by a German when they're trying to escape oncoming forces.
** At the end of the novel,[[spoiler: Kolya]] is ShotInTheAss by his fellow Russians. That's gotta be at least considered 'unusual'.
** Zoya, a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.
* DeadpanSnarker: Lev to Kolya pretty much whenever he talks.
* {{Determinator}}: Lev and Kolya, following a black market seller's tip, find a boy and his frozen-dead grandfather in a chicken coop on the roof of a building holding a gun and one last chicken. Despite their best intentions, he is unwilling to leave the post his grandfather held valiantly against the thieves trying to get to his chickens. (He does give them the chicken on the brink of his death, when he realizes there's no point in it anymore).
* EmotionlessGirl: Vika, who is disinterested in all things that aren't war.
** She's badass enough to be {{The Stoic}}, too.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* {{Friends with Benefits}}: Kolya and Sonya, who dwell in their "benefits" while Kolya and Lev are housed at her place.
* HandsomeLech: Kolya, who boasts much experience in the matters of sex (and even gets some while on the trip), despite his nature.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lev and Kolya, to the point where Vika compares them to a pair of lovers more than a few times.
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: loosing half of a finger in a fight.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: While there is the suspicious meat that is most probably human, there is a much more explicit example.
* LovableSexManiac: Kolya, who even finds a way to jerk-off while walking when he's bored.
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of being made of human.
* NonActionGuy: Lev, who's never been close to the type of violence and pace that he experiences in the trip.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: Lev and Kolya, in the early search for eggs, come across a the building of a desperate husband and wife where the limbs and rib cages of women and small children hang from chains on the ceiling.
* TheQuest: Risking their lives...all for a dozen eggs.
* {{Revenge}}: A random Russian in a prisoner line tells his German captors that Markov, another partisan, is a partisan as revenge against Markov for stealing all the food in his house. Vika gets revenge on that guy later that night, while everyone is sleeping, and slits his throat.
* RunningGag: How long has it been since Kolya's taken a shit?
* [[spoiler: ShootTheShaggyDog:]] [[spoiler: Lev discovers in the end that the Colonel just had eggs airlifted for his daughter's wedding.]]
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatgruppen are basically this.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cold is Mother Russia's oldest weapon, after all.
* ShotInTheAss
* ThereIsNoHigherCourt: There's not even a court to begin with.
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who ha food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: They had to go there to find the eggs, after all.
* WorldWarII
----
-->-Hitler on Leningrad
A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
In its concise 258 pages, it tells the story of Lev, a timid Jew doing his best to survive the harsh winter with no food or supplies. One day, while Lev and friends were on the roof of the apartment building where they lived, they see a German paratrooper fall from the sky (who has been dead since he ejected from the cockpit), and they quickly rush to the body and loot it (Lev gets a fancy German knife). While they're robbing the corpse, the GAZ arrive to arrest them for illegal looting (and by "arrest" we mean "shoot dead on the street"). His three friends get away, but is caught after helping one go over a fence. Instead of shooting him right then and there, they take him to the Crosses, a famous convict prison, to spend the night. There, Lev meets Kolya, a coarse and talkative army deserter.
The next morning, Lev and Kolya are escorted to an NKVD headquarters. There, they meet Colonel Grechko, who feeds them and tells them of his daughter's upcoming wedding. He says he is in need of a dozen eggs to make the cake with, eggs being among the rarer things to find in Russia around this time. So Grechko asks them to go all over Leningrad to find these eggs in exchange for their ration cards back (which he took prior to asking them).
The rest of the story follows from there; Lev and Kolya traveling through Leningrad in search these eggs.
Not to be confused with the FightingFantasy gamebook of the same name.
----
!!This Novel Provides Examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: The search for eggs is ultimately pointless and Kolya dies in the attempt to get home. However, Vika and Lev apparently hook up in the end - his grandson mentions that grandma "never cooks," implying that Vika and her are one and the same person.]]
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A ten-ruble banknote Lev finds that was (badly)counterfeited by the Fritz to lower the value of the actual notes.
-->'''Lev''':''(reading the note)'' ''The prices for food items and the necessities of daily life have increased enormously and the black market in the Soviet Union is florishing'' 'Flourishing' is spelled wrong, by the way. ''Party functionaries and Jews are working dark deals at home while you at the front have to sacrifice your life for these criminal.'' 'These criminal', that's nice. They occupy half the country and they can't even find someone who speaks the language?
* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Plays an important part in the story near the end.
* ColdSniper: Vika, although she warms up a bit.
* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Korsakov, one of the partisans, gets the bottom half of his face blown off by a German when they're trying to escape oncoming forces.
** At the end of the novel,[[spoiler: Kolya]] is ShotInTheAss by his fellow Russians. That's gotta be at least considered 'unusual'.
** Zoya, a fourteen year old SexSlave, gets her feet sawed off by Abendroth of the Einsatzgruppen after she tries to run away.
* DeadpanSnarker: Lev to Kolya pretty much whenever he talks.
* {{Determinator}}: Lev and Kolya, following a black market seller's tip, find a boy and his frozen-dead grandfather in a chicken coop on the roof of a building holding a gun and one last chicken. Despite their best intentions, he is unwilling to leave the post his grandfather held valiantly against the thieves trying to get to his chickens. (He does give them the chicken on the brink of his death, when he realizes there's no point in it anymore).
* EmotionlessGirl: Vika, who is disinterested in all things that aren't war.
** She's badass enough to be {{The Stoic}}, too.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* {{Friends with Benefits}}: Kolya and Sonya, who dwell in their "benefits" while Kolya and Lev are housed at her place.
* HandsomeLech: Kolya, who boasts much experience in the matters of sex (and even gets some while on the trip), despite his nature.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Lev and Kolya, to the point where Vika compares them to a pair of lovers more than a few times.
* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: loosing half of a finger in a fight.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: While there is the suspicious meat that is most probably human, there is a much more explicit example.
* LovableSexManiac: Kolya, who even finds a way to jerk-off while walking when he's bored.
* MysteryMeat: With an uncomfortably high probability of being made of human.
* NonActionGuy: Lev, who's never been close to the type of violence and pace that he experiences in the trip.
* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: Lev and Kolya, in the early search for eggs, come across a the building of a desperate husband and wife where the limbs and rib cages of women and small children hang from chains on the ceiling.
* TheQuest: Risking their lives...all for a dozen eggs.
* {{Revenge}}: A random Russian in a prisoner line tells his German captors that Markov, another partisan, is a partisan as revenge against Markov for stealing all the food in his house. Vika gets revenge on that guy later that night, while everyone is sleeping, and slits his throat.
* RunningGag: How long has it been since Kolya's taken a shit?
* [[spoiler: ShootTheShaggyDog:]] [[spoiler: Lev discovers in the end that the Colonel just had eggs airlifted for his daughter's wedding.]]
* SexSlave: The girls being kept in the cabin by the Einzatgruppen are basically this.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cold is Mother Russia's oldest weapon, after all.
* ShotInTheAss
* ThereIsNoHigherCourt: There's not even a court to begin with.
-->''The punishment for violating curfew without a permit was summary execution. The punishment for abandoning a firefighting detail was summary execution. The punishment for looting was summary execution. The courts no longer operated; the police officers were on the front lines, the prisons half full and dwindling fast. Who ha food for an enemy of the state? If you broke the law and you were caught, you were dead. There wasn't any time for legal niceties.''
* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: They had to go there to find the eggs, after all.
* WorldWarII
----
