About this title: Benioff follows up "The 25th Hour" with this hard-to-put-down novel based on his grandfather's stories about surviving World War II in Russia.
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Description: Very Good. 2008. Paperback. Cover is slightly stained. 310pp.....All books in stock. We ship daily from our warehouse. Over 200, 000 customers served online! Our feedback reflects our service....? Fast delivery, great seller? , ? Fantastic, came right away and was in perfect condition? thanks! ? read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Sceptre
Date Published: 01/06/2009
ISBN-13:9780340977392ISBN:0340977396
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HODDER & STOUGHTON GENERAL DIVISION Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780340977392ISBN:0340977396
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 400 pages. The long-awaited new novel by the critically-acclaimed author of the 25th hour and one of hollywood's brightest screenwriting stars. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Sceptre., London
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780340977392ISBN:0340977396
Description: New. New soft cover. In the coldest winter in history, in a starving city under siege, two prisoners are given a week to complete an extraordinary mission: to scour the ravaged countryside and fine a dozen eggs, or come back empty handed and be killed. read more
Description: Very Good. 0452295297 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Plume Books
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780452295292ISBN:0452295297
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Very rough area on back cover were a shipping label was removed. Otherwise, unread book. NO writing, highlighting or dog-eared corners. Uncreased spine. Fast confirm and shipping! ! ! Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 258 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Very quick and easy to read although parts may be too graphic for some to handle. A different type (at least for me)of coming of age story for a seventeen year old during the seige of Leningrad. Once again, I feel how fortunate I've been to have never faced such hardship (starvation, death, constant fear of death--basically, sheer brutality). Benioff's story illustrates how war changes not only the soldiers but non-combatants as well. Through Lev's and Koyla's journey to find the eggs we encounter different characters who have responded to war in various ways. Not for the faint of heart but a worthy tale nonetheless."
"This is an exciting adventure and story of the friendship of two young men during time of war. I loved this novel! It is not normally the type of book I read but I am so glad I did. I could barely put it down."
"I was so afraid this book would be unbearably grim. I mean, come on, it's the siege of Leningrad, everyone's starving to death, and it's only 1941--the war will just go on and on. Nazis. Russian winter. Are there any OTHER ingredients for grimness in a book.
But this book strikes the perfect balance of brutality and joy. It's all about Kolya, of course, one of those over-the-top characters who is always doing something nonsensical that works out just fine. I won't say he carries the book, because the other characters are amazing, the story is compelling, and the setting is a character of its own--the great city of Piter--but it's Kolya who can find the fun when it seems silly to do so.
If there is a weak link here, I would say it is the women--some books, some male authors, I've noticed, see women as mystical entities, graceful and powerful and all-knowing and self-contained. I wouldn't say this book suffers from this factor, but it's something I noticed--the women are all, in their own ways, flawless.
I really loved this book, and I'm glad the ALA gave it an Alex Award this year, and I'm glad someone picked it for my online book group so I'd pick up something (Nazis? Russian winter?) that I might otherwise never have discovered."
"About as mediocre a book as you could ever find...
Prose readable but never interesting, embedded with excruciating rhetorical questions and banal turns of phrase such as "he shook me till my bones rattled."
Well conceived but poorly imagined, with physical descriptions of a city reading as if lifted from a boring history book...feels like flesh of fiction being draped on a skeleton of historical fact, with the result a wrinkled, gaunt body such as so many described in the book (everyone's starving in it)
Tons of action but zero tension, every moment predictable...characters more than cardboard cutouts but less than paper mache reliefs...
Scenes of the deeply affecting grotesque--cannibalism, rape, murder, freezing to death--but without a passing glance to the human condition...
There's a line in the book about a bad pianist being able to hit all the right notes without being able to make the music his own...and that's what the book feels like..."
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