City of Thieves Book Club Questions
Welcome to the Buddy Book Club – we have a light-hearted comedic podcast that covers a variety of books. City of Thieves by David Benioff is a 2008 historical fiction novel set during the Siege of Leningrad. It has a bit of everything, its part fun, part coming of age, but also dark, and disturbing look into the starvation and desperation of World War 2 Russia.
We did a full breakdown of City of Thieves on our podcast episode. The episode had the Buddies asking deep personal questions like, when is the last time they had a bowel movement, would they eat human meat, and if you’re actually “reading” an audiobook. So check it out if you’re interested.
Our book club questions try to be a little more outside the box/comedic than your typical book club questions – hopefully you enjoy them.
Book Club Questions – City of Thieves by David Benioff
-> Did you realize this book was fictional? From the way it started/ended I was thinking it was real or based on a true story for most of it? Are we dumb? Or is David Benioff’s writing just super convincing?
I really wish no one told me, I thought it was based on his grandparents the whole time!
-> Who was your favorite character in this book? There were so many unique ones to choose from.
Ours was definitely Kolya simply because he was so concerned about other people’s bowel movements. Random follow up question – how much are you paying for a private bathroom at your company office?
-> Lot of cannibalism talk in this book, how much would you have to be paid to eat a piece of human? Something we discussed on the pod clip.
And what part of the human are you eating?
-> Does the ‘candy’ they created from boiled-down book bindings (horse hoof glue/collagen) sound appetizing? Was it a case of human ingenuity in horrible times or something you could never do regardless of how hungry you are?
Imagine how sweet chocolate or a pack of skittles would taste after thinking glue was a dessert.
-> When trudging through the frigid wilderness of Russia they note that a twisted ankle means death, pretty scary. Have you ever had a similar situation where you had to be very cautious or ever experienced an injury that feels like death?
I twisted my ankle pretty bad on the basketball court once and wanted to be put out to pasture, so yes, I can relate.
-> Did this book just make you not ever want to visit Russia? You die in an hour once it gets dark out? The government is wholly corrupt and will kill you on a whim? Any plans on visiting Russia after this book?
Russia really needs to get a PR team, not great.
-> How upset were you that after completing their task and delivering the eggs that, Colonel Grechko flew in three dozen eggs anyway. We wished that Kolya was able to confront him about this. How do you think that conversation would have gone?
Kolya was definitely getting an invite to that wedding and may have ended up stealing the Colonel’s daughter away out of spite.
-> How did you feel about Kolya’s death from friendly fire/a stray bullet? An appropriate ending to a unfair world or did you feel like you wanted some more closure for Kolya?
I wish he was at least able to shit before hand so he could die happy, that’s my biggest gripe.
-> How did you feel about the Vika reveal – she’s the real badass, not grandpa. Should the book been about her instead?
We need a follow up book!
-> How did you grade this book? We still have it as one of our Top 10 Books we’ve done on the podcast. Does it rank that high for you?
Is this more of a ‘guys’ book or could you recommend it to anyone?
-> Who would you cast in a movie version of this book?
We did a casting before the show was made, who did it better?
