Review

Rating: 8

I picked this book up at our library since it is the “one book one region” selection for 2009.
The novel is about one week in the life of a young, half-Jewish boy (Lev) in Nazi invaded Russia. He is picked up for being out after curfew and he and another man (Kolya) picked up for desertion are selected to go find a dozen eggs for the Colonel’s daughter’s wedding cake. They have a week to deliever them and their quest leads them out of Leningrad and into the German held countryside… It also leads Lev out of innocence and into the brutalities of war and what desperation will do to people..
I really liked the following passage in Ch 17 “Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She’s beautiful; when you’re with her, people watch you, they notice. But she bangs on your door at odd hours, and she disappears for long stretches, and she has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends. She is the most thrilling evening of your wee, but some day she will leave you for good. One night, after she’s been gone for years, you will see her on the arm of a younger man, and she will pretend not to recognize you.”