I have a confession to make. I am a coward. And I don’t mean that I’m afraid of bedbugs or the dark [even though I am, a little]. I mean cowardice in a big way. As in I would not be the person standing in front of a tank or staging a sit-in or charging into a burning building. It’s one thing to survive an event, it’s quite another to willingly step into what you know is dangerous.
As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 nears, I find myself thinking of that day. I remember my
feeling of horror as I watched the carnage. It was not just for the people in harm’s way, but also, a little, for myself. Because even though I sat with my family, safe in my own home, I was terrified. What kind of mentality must people have that they commit such acts? What kind of anger, fear, courage or adrenaline made the victims jump out of burning buildings or rush a hijacker? I mourn for all those touched by 9/11, even small people like myself – those of us who learned that day the truth of their inner hearts. And that is one reason why, after I turned the last page of City of Thieves, tears slid slowly down my cheeks.
During World War II, the Nazis invaded Russia and surrounded the city of Leningrad. The city’s population in June 1941 was 2.5 million people. For 900 days, the Nazis kept the city under siege (from September 1941 to 1944). The official death toll for the entire siege is 632,000, but some believe that a truer estimate of loss from death, disease and flight is closer to 1.5 million people – approximately 60% of the population. (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/siege_of_leningrad.htm)
“In June of 1941, before the Germans came, we thought we were poor. But June seemed like paradise by winter.” This is the setting of City of Thieves. It is a story of a war, of nations, of a people. And of youth, survival, desperation, friendship and love. Of courage.
At first, it seems a memoir about the struggle for survival under supremely harsh circumstances, but like a light flurry turning to a heavy snowfall, you slowly come to realize the impressive and vivid weight of truth in this story. What I mean is that it’s not just the beauty of the narrative, the unceasing flow of the perfect words, the dialogue, the bareness of emotions; it’s the feeling of absolute genuineness that accompanies each and every sentence.
In some novels, it’s the historical background that lends legitimacy to the words, but in this, it is the people [I hesitate to even call them characters, they are so much more]. The most powerful stories, I think, are the ones that brush the truth we hold closest inside of us. When you read City of Thieves, be prepared for Lev’s and Kolya’s journey also becoming your journey; one that will reveal as much about your own fears, hates, lusts and confusion as theirs. When it ends you may feel, as I did, a little lost, a little stunned and a tiny bit envious.
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