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* PsychoForHire: The Einsatzgruppen are chock full of these.
* ShotInTheAss: And it's not PlayedForLaughs. At all.
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* ShotInTheAss: And it's not PlayedForLaughs. At all.
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* ShotInTheAss: And it's not PlayedForLaughs. At all.SociopathicSoldier: Abendroth is certainly this.
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* ThoseWackyNazis
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* ThoseWackyNazisThoseWackyNazis: They're evil, but they'll also play chess with our heroes!
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* WarIsHell: This book may use levity well, but it never shies away from the horrors of war. [[spoiler: Kolya dies in Lev's arms by the end of the novel.]]
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* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Abendroth was a sadistic Nazi who sawed off a girl's feet in punishment for her running away, because he and his guys were raping her. No tears were shed when Lev kills him.]]
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* ComingOfAgeStory:
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice.
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* ComingOfAgeStory:
ComingOfAgeStory: The story follows Lev trying to find himself and find out who he truly is...while being in a warzone in one of the most notorious fronts during World War II.
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice. [[spoiler: He kills Abendroth and saves Vika's life, losing a finger in the process.]]
* CowardlyLion: Lev makes numerous punches at himself for his cowardice. [[spoiler: He kills Abendroth and saves Vika's life, losing a finger in the process.]]
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* FeminineWomenCanCook: Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
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* FauxAffablyEvil: Abendroth seems like a nice enough guy for a Nazi, but as soon as Kolya pushes his luck, he drops the act and showcases just how sadistic and vicious he truly is.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Averted. Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* FeminineWomenCanCook: Averted. Vika can't, or rather, doesn't like to, thus making her one of the least feminine girls in a work of fiction.
* RefugeInAudacity: Kolya often invokes this when in a pickle, since no one would be as foolish to do what he would do, right?
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* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya's
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* ToiletHumour: A favorite of Kolya'sKolya's.
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* BelatedInjuryRealization: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
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* IAintGotTimeToBleed: Lev, doesn't notice [[spoiler: losing half of a finger in a fight.]]
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** Another one is the search for eggs. While the main plot has it be a ShaggyDogStory, it turns out the epilogue isn't that bad, as Vika and Lev reunite, with Vika bringing the eggs for the reunion.
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* ShotInTheAss
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* ShotInTheAssShotInTheAss: And it's not PlayedForLaughs. At all.
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[[quoteright:331:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/41r5uohyj_l_sx329_bo1204203200.jpg]]
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A popular 2008 novel by Creator/DavidBenioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
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A popular 2008 novel by Creator/DavidBenioff (who would become better known years later as co-showrunner of ''Series/GameOfThrones'') that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
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Hello Nurse Renamed per TRS
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* 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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* HelloNurse: HeadTurningBeauty: 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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A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
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A popular 2008 novel by David Benioff Creator/DavidBenioff that takes place during the siege of Leningrad.
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->''"The birthplace of Bolshevism, that city of thieves and maggots."''
-->-- '''Adolf 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'' [[Literature/CityOfThieves1983 gamebook of the same name]].
----
!!''City of Thieves'' provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: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.]]
* 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 TheStoic, 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?
* 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.
----
-->-- '''Adolf 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'' [[Literature/CityOfThieves1983 gamebook of the same name]].
----
!!''City of Thieves'' provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: Vika, sniper extraordinaire and a partisan.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: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.]]
* 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 TheStoic, 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?
* 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.
----
